Life of Orion
by hey10224
Summary: Harry Potter's fourth and least-known child, Orion, goes to Hogwarts for the first time, meeting great friends and having fun and adventures along the way! Please R&R!
1. Going to Hogwarts

**Hey, this is the first chapter of Life of Orion, written by hey10224 and co-written by xking23. It's about Orion Potter, Harry and Ginny's fourth kid, and his life at Hogwarts.**

**I do not own the Harry Potter trademark, or anything therein, though some of the characters in this story are completely made-up by me, but have been influenced by elements from other works. JK Rowling owns the trademarks, and I do not wish to claim copywright or anything.**

**Also, I know that JK Rowling said nothing about a fourth Potter kid, but this is purely fictional, and we decided that it would be cool if he did. So no reviewing about that subject matter please. =)**

* * *

Orion Harry Potter walked down the stairs that were in front of him in King's Cross, where he felt the lack of air conditioning very apparent. "When do we get to Platform 9 3/4, Dad?" Orion said, looking up at his towering father. His father was Harry Potter, who apparently was a very important person in history, according to his older siblings. He didn't believe it though, because his dad was so old, and old people are never important.

"Soon, Orion, we're almost at the barrier!" Harry said. Orion sighed. He hated walking blindly to places where he didn't know he was going to go. Orion looked down at the trains waiting in the station. He wasn't entirely sure what he was going to do when he got onto the Hogwarts Express because he didn't know anybody his age. All of his siblings were at least 10 years older than him. He was easily the youngest of his cousins, and the people that his mom and dad brought into the house were always really old with grown children. Orion was unique in his age group in his family. He was like in an entirely different generation. He didn't like being so young because he was often called the baby of the family. He wasn't a baby. He was 11 years old, and tall for his age for that matter.

"Look, I see Uncle Bill! He's with Louis. They're waiting for us!" Orion's mother Ginny said. Orion rolled his eyes. He really did not like Louis. For starters, Louis was six years older than him. Also, Louis was a bit of a goody-goody. Well, actually, he was a lot of a goody-goody. He was Head Boy, and he liked to call you on all of your faults. Like, if your shirt wasn't tucked into your pants, he'd tell you, and wouldn't stop staring at you until you tucked it in. Orion hated tucking his shirt into his pants, and it wasn't that big of a deal to him, or anyone else in the world besides Louis anyway.

"Hey! Orion! I see what you're doing! Tuck it in!" Louis yelled across the station. Orion groaned, embarrassed that Louis would do that across the entire population at the King's Cross. Orion looked up at his mother and said, "Please tell him to stop badgering me!" Ginny said, "Well, you better do it, Orry, or else Louis will do everything in his power to make you." Orion grunted, and tucked his shirt in, getting it fully in there just before meeting up with his uncle and his cousin.

"That's better. Now I know you'll be cool at this school!" Louis conversed, smiling at Orion. _Shove it dumbass_, Orion thought. However, he just looked at Louis and smiled back. Ginny looked at Louis and said, "Now, Louis, you know that Orion doesn't want to be ordered to do everything!" Thanks mom for telling that dimwit off, Orion thought, looking at his mom.

"So, are you excited?" Uncle Bill asked Orion, "Sometimes people think that Hogwarts will be scary. However, that's not the case. It's really fun, and I'm sure you of all people will make fast friends!" Orion liked Uncle Bill because he was the only guy in that family that had any sense at all. It helped that Louis was the only other guy in that family, though.

"I really am excited, thank you for asking!" Orion said, looking at the barrier in front of him. He knew that that was the way to get to Platform 9 3/4 because he had been in there with his siblings go in there many times. He looked up at Louis who took his trolley and said, "Out of the way, Pathfinder!" Orion grunted, and stomped out of the way. Louis always had terrible nicknames for everyone that made no sense. Louis thought he was cool because he was Head Boy. However, Lily, his older sister, told Orion that Louis had no friends at Hogwarts and that he was a loner, even if Louis said he was the coolest kid in the school. Orion believed his sister more than this dumb cousin of his.

Louis gripped his trolley very hard, and started to run at the barrier. He went through without a hitch. Then, after Louis disappeared, everyone started to stare at Orion, expecting him to go through next. Orion looked at the barrier and then looked at his parents. "So, you're going to come in with me right after I run through?" He asked, a bit anxious about what was going to happen in the next few minutes.

"Of course, buddy, do you think I'd want this to be our last time together until Christmas?" Harry said, smiling. Orion nervously smiled back at Harry, and then went up and got his trolley. There was not much on it because his parents decided that they wouldn't buy him an owl after they bought Lily an owl that eventually scratched her so hard that she was in St. Mungo's for her first week of school. Orion gulped, looking at his parents and Uncle Bill one last time before running through the barrier.

He looked in awe up at the magnificent Hogwarts Express, which was right in front of him. In moments, he would be on the train, and rolling away to Hogwarts. He was so excited, yet so scared at the exact same time. He walked over to the entrance into the train, and looked behind waiting for his family members. He saw his mom run up to him and hug him. She said, "Ok, it's getting close to 11 o'clock and we don't want you to be late!" She kissed him on the forehead, and said, "I know you'll do wonders at Hogwarts. Have fun and remember, these will be the best years of your life!"

Orion smiled at his mother, then turned around and immediately hugged his father and he said. "I'll miss you, bud!" Harry said, and he also kissed him on the forehead. Then Orion started to walk towards the train, his trolley being dragged along behind him.  
As Orion entered the train and began to look for a compartment that he could sit at he was starting to get very afraid, there were so many older people around that seemed to ignore him, which was completely unlike the way he was normally treated by his siblings and cousins when they were at his house of vice versa. He saw one compartment that still had room, it had only one seat left, but that was better than cramming into any other compartment, plus these people all looked to be first years.

Orion opened the door of the compartment and asked the occupants, "Hey, uh, would you mind if I sit here?" as he squirmed his way into the compartment, he wouldn't sit until he was told it was okay though. "Sure, the more the merrier." answered on fairly chubby boy with a curly mop of black hair. "Ya, I can't see why not." answered the two other boys, both were very tall and had dark hair, they seemed like they grew up with each other, but it was more than obvious that they were not related. Orion took the fact that three out of the five people in there said it was okay was more than good enough for him to take a seat next to one of the girls.

"Hi, I'm Orion Potter." He told them, even though he was mainly directing his statement towards the girl he was beside. She seemed nice, but was obviously quiet, and only enjoyed talking to someone who seemed to be her sister on the other side of her. They were both cute, but both their mouths dropped when he said his name, and while looking around the compartment he noticed that everyone else did too, except for the big curly haired boy. "What?" he asked even though he already knew the answer, it was because he was a Potter, he was sure of it. None of his cousins had this problem, since the Weasley name wasn't nearly as embedded into the stories as Potter was. And with next summer being Harry's fiftieth birthday the entire wizarding world was getting ready to celebrate.

"As in Harry Potter, Potter?" said the girl that was beside him in amazement. Orion wondered if he should lie to them and try the No, it's a different Potter routine, but then thought that if he wanted friends he couldn't outright lie to them. "Ya, he's my dad!" Orion exclaimed, trying to sound surprised that random people knew who his father was, but it failed horribly. "Well don't rub it in our faces." whined one of the two friends, the one with the glasses and the icy blue eyes. The kid with the big bushy black hair looked confused, "Who's Harry Potter?" He asked as he pulled out his wand to fool around with it, so at the moment he jabbed it into his hair and fluffed up his pretend afro.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, Chub, Chub, Chub, Chub, Chub!" said one of the two tall boys, the one without the glasses and the dark brown eyes. He looked at Orion and said, "I'm sorry, he's a Muggle born. Please give him a little credit that he doesn't know who your father is." Orion couldn't care less if people knew who his father was or not, he didn't think there was anything special about him. He was just 'Dad' and that was all.

"Excuse me, but why is your shirt tucked into your pants?" asked one of the two girls. They were both very similar, but not identical. He assumed they were twins. They were both dark-skinned and had beautiful long hair. Their eyes were really dark, and their smiles were both very sweet. Orion looked down at his pants, and said, "Oh, right. I'm sorry, my cousin told me to. He's the annoying Head Boy of the school you are going to meet." He sighed, taking his shirt out of his pants. He looked up and looked around at the group of people. They all seemed very nice, but he wasn't sure if he was going to become friends with them or not.

Then, Orion heard a whistle blow. That meant that it was time to go! He looked out the window, and tried to look for his parents and Uncle Bill. Unfortunately, the fat kid stood up and stuck his head out of the window, blocking any way of Orion being able to see them for one last time. The five of them sighed, and stared at the fat kid. The fat kid yelled, "Bye mommy! Thanks for packing my underwear for me or else I would have forgotten!" Then, the fat kid stuck his fatness out of the window and started blubbering like a baby.

"I-I don't want to leave her!" He said, bawling his eyes out. "I want, want to stay with her and daddy!" The boy with the glasses rolled his eyes. One of the twins said, "Do I have to comfort him, or will you, Xeno?" The brown-eyed boy groaned and said, "Fine! I'll do it." Then, he stood up and started patting the fat kid on the back. "There, there, it's ok, you'll be fine. Stop on the eating and you won't be made fun of!"

Orion was about to get up and leave the compartment, thinking these kids were too uncool for him when, all of a sudden, the train started to move. Orion jolted backwards, and then sat back upright when he regained his balance. He looked out the window and saw that all of the parents were leaving. He thought he saw his mother, with a handkerchief in her hand, looking somewhat disappointed. Then again, his mother wasn't the only redheaded woman there, so he wasn't too sure.

He sat and looked around the compartment one more time. The fat kid had stopped blubbering, and the one they called Xeno had sat back down. They were moving now. They were going to Hogwarts. Orion was so excited.

Orion looked at the one he perceived to be the most normal kid there, the one with the glasses, and he asked him, "So, what's your name?" The kid looked up and said, "Oh, sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Justin Brent Jones. I am eleven years old, a pureblood, and a proud citizen of England!" Justin stuck out his chest a little, proud of his heritage, Orion guessed.

"I am Xeno King the twenty-third!" Xeno said, smiling. "I come from a long line of purebloods, but no one knows about my family because we have just recently in the last few decades emigrated from a far away island no one knows about." He stuck out his hand for Orion and said, "Nice to meet you, son of Harry."

Orion shook the offered hand. He knew that he was going to be looked at highly because he was Harry Potter's son, but he didn't know he would be treated like _this._ He didn't know he would be treated like he was a God. He felt so privileged to be part of the Potter family now.

"I'm Chub Chub Cantaloupe!" The weird fat kid said, "Apparently, I'm a Muggle-born, but I don't know what that is. I say weird things that people don't understand for the mere fun of it and I am also fat." Orion cocked his head and looked at Chub for a second. Who would name their kid _Chub Chub_? What, did he weigh thirty pounds at birth or something?

"We're the Mary twins!" said the two girls sitting across from him. He turned to face them and smiled at their pretty grins. "I'm Latanya!" said the prettier one on the left. "I'm Lafawnduh!" said the other one. "Nice to meet you two!" Orion said, laughing and sticking his hand out.

He looked out the window at the flat landscape that was before him and wondered if his mom had had her panic attacks yet. She always went a little panicky and berserk when her children left to Hogwarts because she was so worried something bad would happen to them like the things that happened during her childhood. He felt a little sorry for his parents for having going through so much throughout their lives. He didn't think that it was anything crazy that his mom did this after they left, and, in fact, thought it was quite normal behavior.

"So, what's up?" Orion said, trying to break some of the awkwardness that haunted the compartment. "Are you guys all excited to get to finally go to Hogwarts?"

"I'm more excited about meeting you, Orion Potter!" Xeno asked, obviously star struck, "Is it true that your dad killed an evil man named Voldemort who tried to take over the world?" Orion looked down, knowing this was bound to come up sooner or later. He really didn't like to think that his father had killed any man, even if he was a real bad egg. He just tried to think of his father as a normal person who led a normal life and had a normal job with a normal family. He never thought of his father as a hero or anything.

"Yeah, that's true!" Orion said, "Though I'm not entirely proud of it at all."

"Why not, Orion?" Xeno asked, "He saved all of our kind from a terrible fate that would have led to the downfall of wizardkind, or, even worse, mankind!" Orion rolled his eyeballs up into the sockets, trying to avoid the question. He didn't think killing any man was heroic. He thought that it was cowardly. Just let them die themselves, he thought.

Finally, Orion found the strength to answer the question. "I just don't think that the slaughter of another human being, let it be evil or not, is an acceptable thing to do under any circumstances at all. That's just my two cents, though." Orion sighed, hoping Xeno wouldn't hate him now that he said that.

Xeno let out an, "Oh." Then, he looked away and quietly asked, "So you're one of those save the whale vegetarian types, aren't you?" Orion felt sort of offended by that comment, and shot back saying, "No, I just believe that every man has a right to live."

Xeno was about to say something back to Orion when Justin said, "Look, guys, we barely know each other. How about we learn a bit more about ourselves? Who wants to start?" Orion sighed a sigh of relief, quite happy that Justin had gotten Xeno and him off the topic of his father. He was quite proud of his father, but he just didn't want people to bring up anything like Xeno had brought up. It sort of made him feel uncomfortable and sick.

After a few moments of silence, Justin snorted and said, "Fine, I'll start!" Then, he cleared his throat and said, "Hello, I'm Justin Brent Jones. You already know that, though, so what's the point of me telling you. My father is the famous Brent Jones-"

"WHAT?" Xeno asked, jumping up. "You're saying _your_ father's famous when we have frickin' Orion Harry Potter in the room? Excuse me, but I'm going to have to finish your story." Xeno sat back down, and started to explain Justin's life story. "You see, Justin thinks his father is famous because he is Gwenog Jones's adopted son. Plus, he works at the Ministry as an assistant secretary in charge of the treasurer who helps the main treasurer to the Minister for Magic." Xeno let out a deep breath, and leaned back.

"Um… I'm sorry, but who's Gwenog Jones?" Latanya asked. "Was she a Quidditch player or something thirty years ago?" Lafawnduh asked, shrugging. Justin's ears perked up and he yelled out, "SEE! At least they know who my grandma is!" He looked at Xeno smugly. Xeno just groaned and said, "Lafawnduh didn't know that, she was just going out on a limb and guessing. She's not as famous as you think she is! She just played for the Holyhead Harpies! I mean, even Orion's mom did that!"

"Yeah, yeah she did!" Orion said, smiling. He thought it was kind of neat how Xeno seemed to know everything about him even though they had just met thirty minutes ago. He sort of was kind of starting to like the fact that he stayed in this compartment instead of moving and trying to find another one.

"Uh, excuse me guys, but the food trolley is here, and I need my food or else the hippo inside of me will _die_ of herpes!" Chub said, standing up and jiggling over to go and buy some food. Orion immediately locked eyes with Justin, who shrugged and said, "I don't understand what he's saying either." Then, Xeno blurted out, "What's herpes?"

"Uh, Muggle disease from reproduction." Latanya answered as she walked over to the trolley to get some chocolate frogs. She and her sister had one of the biggest collections she has ever seen. She bought six frogs and tossed three to her sister and they started eating them. Chub went over and bought three cartoons of Bertie Bott's Every Flavoured Beans and half a dozen liquorice wands. Justin and Xeno looked at each other and shook their heads; they both bought a few pounds of candy from Diagon Alley when they went for their books. And Orion just went up and bought one chocolate frog, and a pack of Bertie's Beans, he really didn't need much since his Uncle Ron gave him more than enough candy for the entire year.

"Oh." Xeno shrugged as he, along with everyone else decided it was less time for talking and more time for eating, and for the twins shrieking as they both unwrapped their third and final chocolate frog, which just as a random coincidence was no one other than Harry James Potter. "Oh MY GOD!" They both shouted at the same time as they showed their card to Orion. "Look, it's your father, its Harry, we now have Harry!" They shrieked as Lafawnduh gave hers to Orion trying to extend a hand of friendship seeing how she had been oh so quiet. Orion read the card and saw in firm printing that his dad had indeed killed a man named Tom Riddle. Upon finally realizing that it must be true, he began to stare out the window.

"Well, uh in a lighter note, how's your hippo doing there Chub?" Justin asked trying once again to take the pressure off of Orion. Xeno was stuffing his face with some of the candy he bought, namely some cauldron cakes. "Uh, well he isn't dead yet, so I guess that's good." He chuckled as he stuffed a vomit-flavoured bean into his mouth, his eyes twisting in shock and his mouth almost doubling over at the taste. "EEEWWWWW!!!!" He yelled as he spat the fragments everywhere, and spraying almost all over the compartment. "GROSS!" shrieked the twins as they put up their hands in defense which did very little except make their hands very pukey.  
"I think I'm gonna be sick." Chub moaned as he grabbed a handful of beans hoping to calm down, shoving four in his mouth his eyes screwed up again and his whole head turned lime green. Sadly he decided to eat a sardine, soap, grass and dirt bean. And this time he actually did vomit everywhere, or at least attempt to.

"Protego." Orion said as he raised his wand really quickly and blocked his newfound buddies from being spewed over. "GROSS!" The girls yelled again as he tried to cover their faces. After everyone noticed that they didn't get hit by the vomit, Justin joked, "Well it looks like the house elves will have to clean some spew here. But nice job there, otherwise we'd all look like a mess for the opening ceremony." Justin laughed, and the others all laughed except for Chub who was still way to busy trying to hold down anything that was left.

"That fat kid is really creepy and gross!" Lafawnduh said. She turned to face Orion and said, "Thanks for protecting me. These robes are new, and my ma would freak if I had ruined them first day!" Orion smiled, happy that he was being known as the savior. He looked down and saw his father waving right at him. He decided to read the card, and hope that Chub didn't vomit again.

_Harry James Potter: Born July 31, 1980. Also known as "The Boy Who Lived." His parents, Lily and James Potter (both also collectible), were part of an elite force of people called the "Order of the Phoenix." When Potter was just one year of age, his parents were brutally murdered by the dark wizard, Voldemort (birth name Tom Riddle. Also collectible). Voldemort attempted to murder young Potter as well, but somehow, he survived the killing curse. In 1997, he again survived the killing curse, and ended up killing Riddle to save the wizarding world, which was under siege. Known to be the greatest living wizard, he currently resides in a small village outside of London with his wife, Ginevra Weasley (also collectible) and their four children._

He read the card over, and over, and over again. He just couldn't believe that not only his dad had a card, but his mom, grandmother and grandfather had cards as well. He had never collected the cards from Chocolate Frogs, and his parents always tossed them before he had the chance to look at them. Was it because of this? Was it because they wanted to shield their son from knowing about how famous he actually was. He wondered if Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione had cards as well.

"Ten minutes 'til Hogwarts!" Xeno said, to break the silence. Orion finally got out of his daze, and looked up. Chub was asleep against the window, and loudly snoring. Justin had earplugs in, presumably to try to fend off the annoying snores. The twins were playing a game of cards, and Xeno was doing nothing.

"You know, I know you think it's weird that I'm treating you like this, but wait until you get to Hogwarts. Most people don't even know Harry had a fourth kid, let alone one our age!" Xeno said, staring into Orion's eyes. "You'll be a king to them, and not the King like I will be to them. Like, you'll be looked at funny, and some people will hate you because they think your dad's a phony. But, I read about your father in a history book. And if those are wrong, what is right?"

Orion sighed, looking out the window. He could see a castle coming up along the horizon. He was starting to feel the anxiety and was a little scared of what people would think of him. He was very self-cautious, and now he was the son of the _greatest living wizard_. He had huge shoes to fill, and he hoped he could fit them. He wondered how Lily, Albus and James got through the mess of being the children of Harry Potter: The boy who lived.

* * *

**And that was the first chapter of Life of Orion. Hope you liked it. PLEASE REVIEW! We love feedback, and, if you want, you can even make suggestions that may (or may not) influence us about the contents of further chapters. Thanks for reading! **

**Hey10224 and Xking23**


	2. The Sorting

**Here we go, second chapter. Hopefully we'll get soem more reviews this time :P I do not own th Harry Potter trademark**.

* * *

As the six compartment mates got off of train at the Hogsmeade station which Orion had heard so much about, mainly by James, who seemed to always make it into the village no matter if he got in trouble, which was always. Orion looked at who he assumed would be his friends here for at least the first year and smiled. They all seemed so good, so nice, and so different that together they probably covered every strand of what a person was like. There was the stupid one with Chub, the sensible one with Justin, the excitable one with Xeno and then the two quite, and probably smart and strong ones with Latanya and Lafawnduh. Then there he was, Orion the son of a famous couple: The... 'different' one.

"Come on guys, I read we're going on boats to get there." Latanya told them as she and her sister skipped towards the boats, being followed by Xeno, who was really excited to see what the boats looks liked. Where he grew up the only boat he saw was a hundred foot long yacht that his father bought, but never let anyone onto it. Justin and Orion followed them at a reasonable pace, they were ahead of at least Chub, which wasn't that hard to do if you were drunk and were trying to scratch your back while hopping on one leg.

"Three to a boat!" Orion heard a very familiar voice yell out. It was Louis. Oh crap, better get into a boat before he sees me! As the friends approached the boat, they looked at each other and very quickly Orion, Xeno, and Justin all rushed into the same boat, sitting there smiling as the Mary twins and Chub got into another. When every first year was ready to go the boats magically sailed off towards the castle along the clear and frigid lake water. Even though it was pitch dark outside the night seemed bright with all the stars, and the lights from the ever approaching castle.

Orion sighed as he looked up at the beautiful night sky, he really loved all the stars and seeing how he was named after them he took pleasure to bathe in their eternal glorious light. "Don't you just love the night?" He asked his boat mates, as he looked away from the heavens. He never did get to find out their answer though since as soon as he asked he heard an "I feel sick again." And then two loud shrieks which the three boys only imagined coming from Chub and the twin's boat, which made the guys laugh so much harder than all the other first years that hadn't yet had to opportunity to meet them.

"Man do you guys feel a bit sorry for them?" Xeno asked as he looked out trying to see what boat they were in, all of the wooden little dinghies looked the same to him, but he saw one that could have the shape of Chub in it, even though from where he was sitting it looked more like a year's supply of Jell-O. "I guess, but I did already save them once, and I'm not a superhero." Orion answered with a swift little smile on his face. Sure he felt bad for sticking them with Chub, but they could have went into a different boat instead of just giving in and sitting with someone that they knew. Orion sighed again as they saw the castle in all its glory, its many towers, and levels standing out with the lights inside the halls, they were so close to history right here, and yet so far from making their own. "When do we get off?" Orion asked as he tried to get a closer look at the castle by shuffling in his seat to do a quick exchange with Justin, who was very quiet on this boat ride.

"About now." Justin replied as the boats in front of them started hitting shore and had ropes magically tie them up. Soon every boat was tied and the kids started to unload. Orion, Xeno and Justin got off of the boat and were immediately ushered into the entrance hall. Obviously they were later arriving then the other students so they could let the sorting take place. Orion looked around the Entrance hall in search for Chub and the twins, and upon finding them he quickly waved his hand signaling for them to come join them. They were hopefully still friends, it wasn't just his fault that they got ditched and had to sit with each other. "You guys are so dead." The twins muttered to them as they stood one on both sides of Orion, glaring at him, Justin and Xeno all throughout the time when their Headmaster was talking to them. Orion should have picked up on the name, but he was truthfully way too scared as to what the twins would do to them, so he thought it better to be thinking about the best way to apologize to them. He knew that during the many times he got Lily upset he used to always buy her a bag full of candy, and by buy, he really meant he asked his Uncle Ron to give him some stuff. And just like it's worked for his uncle's marriage, it has worked for every relationship he has had with a female every time he had.

Orion followed Justin, who followed Xeno, who actually followed Chub into the Great Hall. There were four massive tabled each filled with students wearing black robes with different coloured outlining, and as Orion actually walked past some of the people he saw that each table had its own emblem. He quickly walked past his cousin Louis whose robes were black and red with a picture of a lion over the left breast, that he knew was the symbol for Gryffindor. Virtually all of his family was in Gryffindor, and he didn't want to be an exception. As every first year filled the space between the red Gryffindors and the blue house, which if he remembered correctly was Ravenclaw. The Headmaster, an old man with an odd shade of grey as his hair colour, put an old hat on a stool at the front of the Hall.

The hat looked like it had a rip in it just above the brim, and it looked like it had been in many fights, and a few fires that it came out from. Orion didn't think his siblings or his cousins were telling him the truth about a talking hat that was put onto peoples head to sort them was true, but the more he saw this hat the more he actually believed them, especially when it leaned back then began to sing:

_Oooooooohhhhh put me on your head,  
And see what I can see  
For I am a sorting hat and sorting is my thing.  
Now if you are slick and sly  
Or sneaky and ambitious  
It is in Slytherin that you would find suspicious.  
Or if you are rather brave,  
And quite unafraid of everything  
Then it would be in Gryffindor you crave.  
For those of you that are true and kind  
Or those that are quite loyaaaaalllllllll  
Then it's Hufflepuff where you belong.  
And if you are smart,  
Curious and like to learn a lot  
Then call Ravenclaw your home.  
It's my job to see inside your head  
And find where you rather bed.  
Be with the blue or yellow,  
Even red or green  
I shall find you a home.  
If you think I am not important  
Then you should know one thing,  
There has been many a fight over me.  
For one man said:  
OH I had a hat when I came in and I left it on my head,  
And I'll have a hat when I go out or I'll hex you a week back  
I'm a decent wizard I-  
_  
Orion was having a fun time listening to the Sorting Hat, but the thing that was really on his mind was the fact that, soon, he would be sorted. Soon, he would be put permanently into a house. He would either make his family proud by being in Gryffindor, or influence them to disown him if he was thrown into any other house. He gulped, as he nervously stood around at the front of the Hall, everyone's eyes on him.

"Tuck your shirt in!" Orion heard, and immediately let out a cry of disappointment as he turned and saw his cousin waving at him, and motioning to tuck his shirt into his pants. "Louis, I'm wearing a robe now! No one will even notice!" Orion said, hoping the sorting would start soon.

Louis waved his finger and said, "Uh-uh-uh! They will notice so you have to tuck your shirt in or people will think you as inconsiderate!" Orion sighed. _You're inconsiderate, you dingbat! _Orion turned around and did fake motions that he was tucking his shirt into his pants, and then turned around, hiding the top of his pants from his cousin and said, "There? Happy now?"

Fortunately, Louis didn't have a chance to answer, because the Sorting Hat stopped singing and the Headmaster went to the front of the head table and began to speak. "May I say greetings to my new students?" He said, smiling, "It is now time to start the sorting! We will do this in alphabetical order, and, once you are sorted, that is the house you will be in. There is no redo, you will then immediately go to that table, and you will become a member of that house for your entire stay at Hogwarts! Since we are running a little bit late, we are going to start the sorting without further ado!"

After his speech, the Headmaster stepped down. Then, everyone saw a little, old short man get down from his seat at the table and walk up to the front of the head table. After he arrived, a platform rose up high after his flick of a wand and he went high up in the air. He was soon visible to all. He cleared his throat, and then called out a name.

"Arthur, Jolene!"

A girl that was standing right near Orion quickly ran up to the stool where the hat was. She sat on it, and put the hat down. A few seconds later, the hat yelled out "Slytherin!" The young, short girl smiled and ran over to the Slytherin table and cried out, but it was impossible to hear what she said over the roar from over there.

"Baradia, Quinton!"

An Indian boy nervously tiptoed up to the hat. He was quickly sorted into Ravenclaw, and again there was a huge roar.

The next kid, a girl named Brown, Magenta was sorted into Gryffindor. Then, it was time for someone that Orion knew to start getting sorted.

"Cantaloupe, Chub!"

Chub, who was right beside Xeno, walked slowly up to the sorting hat, holding his stomach. He didn't look very good, but Orion really didn't want to say anything. Chub slowly got up to the stool, sat down and put the hat on his curly black mop of hair. He looked constipated, as he sat up there for what seemed like minutes. The sorting hat didn't say anything. Orion was really confused.

Then, all of a sudden, Chub opened his mouth and tossed his cookies. The whole entire Great Hall screamed, and some girls started crying. The Headmaster ran up to where Chub was sitting and immediately flicked his wand. All the vomit went away like the blink of an eye. Chub started to cry, and said "I want my mommy!"

The sorting hat said, "Well, I guess it's got to be HUFFLEPUFF!"

Chub didn't take the hat off though, because he was too sick and didn't want to move. There wasn't even a roar of applause when he was sorted. Most of the Hufflepuffs just flinched and hoped that Chub wouldn't sit beside them.

Eventually, the headmaster comforted Chub, and they both walked together over to the Hufflepuff table, where everyone had made a lot of room for him. Then, the headmaster went back up to the head of the table and said, "I'm sorry about the delay."

"Carmichael, Melissa!"

Melissa let out a loud "EWWWW! NOT AFTER HE WAS UP THERE!"

Eventually, Melissa was sorted into Ravenclaw, Connor, Adam went to Gryffindor, and two girls with the same last name, but weren't related, were both sorted into Slytherin.

After a while of hearing names, and a few more people were sorted, one Finnigan, Harold taking forever before being sorted into Gryffindor, it was time for Justin Jones to take the hat onto his head and get sorted.

Orion watched as Justin, who was standing right next to him, went up and smiled, giving a thumbs up to Xeno and Orion. Justin put the hat on his head and the sorting hat immediately yelled out "SLYTHERIN!" to massive applause coming from the Slytherin table.

"Aw, crap, I thought Justin was ahead of that!" Xeno said to Orion, as they both watched Jung, Li go up to the stool. He was sorted into Hufflepuff, and then a girl named Milly was sorted into Gryffindor.  
"King, Xeno!"

"Wish me luck, Orion Potter!" Xeno said, as he ran up the stairs, eager to be sorted into a house. Xeno sat on the stool, and put the hat on, crossing his fingers. Then, the hat yelled out, "RAVENCLAW!" and Xeno blushed, and ran over to the Ravenclaw table, not before saying to Orion, "I hope you're in Ravenclaw as well!"

Orion thought about what Xeno had said. Well, it would be cool to be in Ravenclaw with Xeno, but he really wanted to be in Gryffindor. He needed to make his siblings go 4 for 4 in that house. It would make everyone think of him as noble, and a great person. He really didn't pay attention to the next few sorts, because he was so nervous about his impending one.

"Mary, Lafawnduh!"

The first of the Mary twins walked up anxiously to get sorted. She seemed very smooth about the whole process, and ran up and immediately put the hat on the head as it yelled out "GRYFFINDOR!" The table yelled a tremendous roar of triumph, and she walked over to the table, scared that she would get swarmed.

"Mary, Latanya!"

The second twin walked up slower to the hat. She nervously put it on, hoping that it would tell her some good news. The hat took a while to say anything, but finally came out with its verdict and yelled out "RAVENCLAW!"

Orion found it odd that twins would go to two different houses, but he didn't say anything as McCrae, Jason was sent into Slytherin.

For what seemed like hours after Jason's sorting, it was finally time for Orion. He knew it when the last person's name just happened to be "Potteq, Alexandria!"

"Potter, Orion!"

The whole hall gasped in unison. Orion could hear the chatter as people started whispering to each other.

"A fourth Potter kid?"  
"I didn't know he had one!"  
"I think my mom forgot to pack my underwear!"

Orion walked up to the stool, very carefully and put the hat on, hoping it would wait a while before just shouting out a house for him.

"Ah, very curious!" the hat said to him, "You are always trying to act out and be someone you are not, so I wouldn't put you in Hufflepuff. You are quite brave, but definitely not ambitious. However, I'm starting to think your curiosity is winning out."

"Where would that put me?" Orion whispered to the hat.

"That would put you in Ravenclaw, Master Potter. Though I know how much you'd like to make your family proud. Yes, very tough decision right here. Almost as tough as that vomiting Cantaloupe kid."  
After a few moments of awkward silence, the hat seemed to sigh and said, "Well, you just happen to be the most intelligent person here, but I just don't want to make you feel bad…"

Orion really didn't know what to say to that. He sat there, helpless, everyone's eyes on him. He gulped and sort of impulsively said, "I'm anxious. Is there any way to go any faster?"

"No, no, no, I have to place you in the house you would enjoy most. You know, your father was difficult to sort as well. He was ultimately chosen to be in Gryffindor due to his courageousness, yet I don't see you having those abilities. So, it has to be RAVENCLAW!"

Orion closed his eyes real tight. He was so disappointed. He heard the great roar from the Ravenclaw table, yet when he opened his eyes he looked over at the disappointed Gryffindors, especially his cousin Louis, who looked like he wanted to disappear. Sorry guys, it's not my fault, Orion thought, thinking about what his parents would think about him being sorted into the wrong house. He slumped down over to the Ravenclaw table, where Xeno patted him on the back and said, "I know we'll be best friends, Orion Potter!" Yet, Orion wasn't so sure.

Orion was so scared of what his parents would think; he didn't even hear the rest of the sorting. They must be disappointed, he was the first person out of Gryffindor since well when exactly Orion had no clue, but he assumed it was a very long time. At least Ravenclaw wasn't so bad; after all, his mother's friend Luna was in that house. He looked around noticing that the sorting was over and the feast began.

It was just as good as his siblings said it was, and he always wondered if the feasts were like this every day. He looked around at the table. All the food looked so great, so he decided to do the only sensible thing and have a lot of everything. It was all so good, and hot. He knew he shouldn't really like eating this seeing how his Aunt had told him how it was made by house elves, but it was so good. It wasn't his fault they didn't ask for another job. The house elves still liked working, and at least they were getting paid a bit.

Orion looked around. He was beside the only two compartment mates that were Ravenclaws: Latanya and Xeno, and they both seemed to be enjoying themselves, chatting quietly with each other and another first year, which Orion remembered as Melissa Carmichael. She was definitely good looking, and Orion could tell that Xeno thought so as well, that was for sure, for he was totally engrossed in every word she was saying. Latanya on the other hand seemed a bit more occupied trying to talk to them, but when that failed, which was pretty quickly, she turned to Orion and muttered something along the lines of, "Such a jerk, not even that pretty, neither is he, so arrogant, moving mole, stuck up, just cause, half blood." Latanya was fuming, obviously something that was said by one of them set her off and Orion had nothing to do but sigh as he looked at Latanya. He smirked. She was so easily angered apparently, so she might not be the best to hang around. His family always taught him of so many pranks and jokes to use once he got here. His brother even gave him a map of Hogwarts, apparently it's been passed around the family, and Uncle George even had it in his possession for a while. He was told that it might be helpful for nighttime adventures as well as getting to class for the first week.

"Just ignore them." He told Latanya as he saw Xeno do an obvious fake laugh at a joke Melissa told him, which all Orion heard was what he assumed to be the punch line. The punch line was "holy crap a talking muffin!" It might have been funny if Orion had heard the whole joke, but a taking muffin wasn't really that funny, or even plausible.

"That's easy for you to say, you weren't told to mind your own business, if anyone decides to let you have any." Latanya cried as Orion just looked helpless. He didn't see why that was bad, but either way he hated to see people get upset so he reached into his pocket and pulled out a chocolate frog and placed it onto her lap, knowing how much she liked them. It should make everything better for her seeing how it worked so often for Uncle Ron. "Thanks Orion." She cried, but this time it was a lot happier as she gave him a small hug, then they both looked awkwardly at their food and ate in silence.

When the feast was over, and they were told all about where to go in the school, and what was forbidden, all of the prefects and head boy and girl stood up and showed where the common rooms were for the students houses.

Orion actually was happy he wasn't in Gryffindor for the first time this evening. It was because he wasn't going to get to be able to see Louis, because he was rounding up the Gryffindors. Instead, he was following the lead of the Head Girl, a very tall and pretty Ravenclaw girl whose name was Loretta Carmichael. As they walked up the stairs to get to the common room, Xeno nudged Orion and said, "I guess pretty runs in the Carmichael family!" Orion rolled his eyes, knowing that Xeno was hit by the love-bug.

They all got up the stairs to a door, and Loretta spread her arms wide as if to motion that no one should pass her. There was a magnificent bronze eagle knocker on this door, and it asked a question. "If there were seventeen sheep, and all but eight of them died, how many sheep were left?"

Orion groaned, suddenly realizing that he would have to answer a question every time he wanted to enter his common room. He was smart, but he didn't like this idea one bit. He heard that if you were a Gryffindor, all you had to do was remember a password, and that if you were a Slytherin, you could just go in without any hesitancy.

"Naturally, there would be eight sheep." Loretta said, flicking her head to get her hair out of the way. The knocker said, "Of course, that was a simple question. Next time I won't be so lenient." The door opened, and Loretta went inside the common room. Of course, everyone else followed suit. Orion went in to the very crowded common room. He looked around, figuring there were about 150 people in here.

"First years, please come with me!" Loretta said, stopping in front of the fireplace. Orion walked over with Xeno and Melissa to the front of the crowd of 12 students that were crowding around Loretta. "Hi sis!" Melissa said to Loretta, but Loretta decided to ignore that Melissa existed and said nothing at all. Melissa pouted.

"Ok, ok! We have four dormitories for the first years this year. Three to a dorm. When I call your name, you shall go up the first set of stairs and go to the first dormitory on the right. Melissa, Latanya and Adrian." Loretta announced, and the three girls waved goodbye to their newfound friends and they went up the stairs.

"Ok, Bonnie, Juniper and Ruth! You have the first dorm on the left up the stairs!" Loretta said, putting on a fake smile. You could tell that she didn't like this job very much. The last of the girls went up the stairs leaving the boys all alone in the common room, for everyone else had all went to their respective dorms. It must have been one o'clock in the morning. Orion was very tired.

"All right, now for the boys. You go up the second set of stairs over there!" Loretta said, pointing at the more rickety and towering stairs on the other side of the common room. "First, Quinton, William and To! First dorm on the right!" The three other boys went away, and that left Xeno, Orion and another boy that they didn't really know very much.

"Ok, so you three must be Xeno, Orion and Dante. You guys will be getting the room first on the left up the same set of stairs that the other boys went up." Xeno nodded, and said, "Come on Orion! I hear that all of our stuff will be in there waiting for us!" Xeno ran up the stairs quickly, and Orion was right behind him, with Dante bringing up the rear.

Xeno was the first who got into the dormitory and his eyes widened when he realized how beautiful it was. "Wow!" was all he could say. There were three, huge queen beds for them, all with the Ravenclaw emblem on them. The whole room was coloured with blue and bronze, and the walls were made of stone. On each bed, it said each of the three names. Orion walked up to the one that said his name and lay on the bed, immediately feeling it's therapeutic goodness. He loved how comfortable the bed was. He sat up on it, and looked under the bed, seeing his entire luggage. He felt immediately happy that he was in Ravenclaw because, apparently, the Gryffindor beds were hard as rock, and it was only single beds in the whole place.

"So, before we go to bed, we better learn about ourselves. And by ourselves, I mean we have to learn about you, Dante Tolusso. We know nothing about you!" Xeno said, leaning back on his bed.

"Well, I'm a Muggle-born, I'm from London, but my family is originally from Italy." Dante said, pushing his glasses back onto the bridge of his nose. He turned to Orion and said, "I hear your dad was famous or something. That's cool!" Then Dante did a bit of a yawn, and turned over, apparently instantly falling asleep.

"Well, I'm going to go get my pajamas on!" Xeno said, going to the attatched bathroom, and closing it behind him. Orion looked over at Dante, but he didn't want to say anything that was going to wake him up. Orion got his luggage out and found his toothbrush and toothpaste, and held it in his hand. Then, he got his pajamas, and waited for Xeno to get out of the bathroom.

After a while of waiting, Xeno came out and said "I'm out!" He walked over to his bed, and tucked himself in. Then, Orion saw that he fell asleep instantly as well. Orion sighed, and walked over to he bathroom.

After getting ready, he went into his bed too, and curled up into a ball. He had had a long day, after waking up the previous morning very early to get to King's Cross, and then going on the train and being sorted and whatnot. It was all very riveting. He was excited to go and start his first days of Hogwarts tomorrow, but he was also a bit scared to know what his parents would think about him being sorted into Ravenclaw. He sighed, turned over, and heard the soft snores from Dante. Orion yawned himself, and then he closed his eyes, not wanting to think another thought until morning came.

* * *

**Ok, hopefully this chapter set in the characters well. We always aprecciate reviews and suggestions. Constructive criticism is awesome! We're hoping to have a lot of chapters in this story, so it's a good time to start reading now if you haven't yet. No time like the present!**

**Hey10224 and xking23**


	3. Navigating and Xeno's Past

**I'm disappointed by the number of reviews that we've gotten, lol. We need more. We need suggestions. We can't think of anything original for next chapter! Hopefully you like this one though. I do not own Harry Potter. JK Rowling does. I know that.**

* * *

Orion woke up the next morning at eight o'clock. He really did not have a good sleep, and he had dreamed about his parents' reactions to him getting in Ravenclaw. "You have disgraced the Potter name." His father said to him in his dream. "We disown you, Orion." His mother said. Then, they walked away and left him locked in his room, where he was forced to be with Louis for the rest of his life. "Tuck your shirt in. Tuck your shirt in. Tuck your shirt in. Tuck your shirt in. Tuck your shirt in. Tuck your shirt in. Tuck your shirt in." Louis said in a robotic tone, and Orion just ran and huddled up in the corner.

Luckily, just after Louis had multiplied to the point where there was a thousand of him and they were about to swarm Orion, Orion was awoken by the sound of an alarm clock. Though, it wasn't his alarm clock. It was Dante's. Orion was sort of happy and upset. He was happy that he didn't have to be in his nightmare anymore, but unhappy that he had had a really bad sleep, and that he was still tired.

"Who in their right mind sets their clock to wake them up this early in the morning?" Xeno said, sitting upright in his bed and staring Dante down. Dante turned pink, and got out of his bed and into the bathroom. Xeno scowled, and turned to Orion. "Hopefully he doesn't do that every morning!" Xeno groaned, and leaned over and opened his suitcase.

The whole school was very lucky that they had arrived yesterday, because yesterday was a Saturday. That meant that they wouldn't need to start classes until tomorrow, because Sunday was their self-proclaimed day of rest. Out in the common room, after the three boys had gotten ready for their day, everyone seemed to be smiling and talking with their friends. "Look away, look away!" Xeno said pointing at a couple that was kissing on the sofa.

Just as Xeno, Dante and Orion were about to head out into the confusing hallways of Hogwarts, Orion got a tap on the shoulder. He turned around and saw Latanya and a small blonde girl that he recognized as one of Latanya's roommates.

"Hey guys? Do you mind if we could go down with you to the Great Hall for breakfast?" Latanya said, as she curled her hair through her fingers. Orion looked at the girl that Latanya was with, and had to stop himself from laughing when he realized that she looked like a midget in her robes, which were a few sizes too big.

"Oh, by the way, this is Adrian Vella." Latanya said, motioning to her friend. "She's very shy, so don't feel offended if she doesn't say anything to you." Adrian sort of acknowledged that Latanya was talking about her by doing a tiny wave of her hand, but then sticking it back down into her pocket.

Orion looked at Dante, and then Xeno and said, "Sure, I don't see why you can't come down with us." Orion turned back to head out the door, and Dante followed suit, but Xeno just stood there, looking at Latanya. "Where's Melissa?" He whined, "Isn't she one of your dorm buddies as well? Why isn't she with you?" Latanya rolled her eyes. "Oh! That hypocritical witch? She's upstairs doing her make-up right now. I mean, she's eleven. Can't she go to breakfast without putting on mascara?" Latanya grunted, and started heading out the door.

The five of them walked down the stairs, and then tried to remember how to get to the Great Hall. Orion had heard that it was difficult navigating his way through the complicated walls of Hogwarts, especially considering that James had told him that most of the building liked to change a lot, which made your life a living Hell. Orion moaned when he realized that he didn't have the map that James had given him. James said that it would help him with everything, but that you had to say something to make it work it's magic. Orion didn't remember these words, so he probably wouldn't find the map helpful anyways.

"I'm sure it's on the first floor!" Xeno said, "I'm not sure though. See, I'm the first person in my family to go to Hogwarts, so I really don't know anything about it…"

"I think you are right!" Latanya said, smiling. "My older sister said that it was on the first floor, right off the Entrance Hall. Now only if we could find that."

Orion, Dante and Adrian just followed the two of them through the maze that was Hogwarts. Orion knew it was on the first floor as well, but he really didn't have any information to add on. Dante was a Muggle-born so he had no idea about anything, and Adrian hadn't spoken a word yet, and he wasn't expecting her to say anything anytime soon.

After forty-five minutes of searching, the five of them found the Great Hall, and went to sit at the almost empty Ravenclaw table. Apparently, they had just made it in time for breakfast, even though it wasn't even that late. Orion and Xeno looked at each other and sighed. That meant they would have to wake up early every morning, which would definitely suck.

The food was bacon and eggs, but it wasn't that good, because it had been sitting out for a while. Orion would think that maybe there was some kind of magical way to heat it up for them, but he ate them as they were. There wasn't much to be said, so there wasn't any real conversations at the table, apart from "Pass the butter!" and "Your bacon looks better than my bacon, you cumquat!"

After breakfast, they got out of the Great Hall, and were about to go up the stairs to explore when they saw Melissa running down the stairs. She was sweating, and her makeup was running. Latanya smirked and let out a chuckle. Melissa didn't stop running and yelled, "Am I late for breakfast? Loretta said that I missed it, but she never tells me the truth so I gotta know, did I miss it?"

"Yup! I'm sorry, girl. Maybe next time you could dedicate a little less time to yourself!" Latanya said, starting to full out laugh in Melissa's face. Orion looked at Melissa, and then had a sudden wonder why she didn't get sorted into Slytherin.

"Hey, hey!" Xeno said when Melissa started to cry, "Don't start the waterworks! It is just breakfast. There's still lunch and dinner for you!" He walked up to her, and started to comfort her, patting her back.

"Yeah, but you better go up and reapply your makeup! You don't want to miss lunch. I hear that ends in four hours, so you better run up and hurry!" Latanya said.

"Hey! Shove it, Latanya!" Xeno said angrily, "She's already upset, she doesn't need you to make fun of her!" Xeno then led Melissa to the stairs, hoping that she would be able to find the common room. That momentarily left Orion with Latanya, who was laughing so hard she had tears in her eyes, and the other two, who really hadn't made a peep in the last hour or so.

"So, Adrian…" Orion said, trying to make conversation, "Let me get to know a bit about you! What's up? Where you from?" He smiled, hoping she would talk and open up to him. Unfortunately, Latanya stopped laughing and said, "She's half-blood. She lives alone with her mother, and she's an only child."

Orion rolled his eyes. "Thanks, Latanya. Next time, try to let Adrian answer."

Then, Orion heard a big "EEEEEEEEEEEEEW!" coming from behind him and he turned around. He saw Chub there, right over in the corner of the Entrance Hall, surrounded by two girls who looked like they were going to be sick. Orion curiously walked over there. Then, when he realized why the girls were so grossed out, he ran back to the others.

Chub had snot running down all over his face. It wasn't just everyday mucus, it was bright green. It looked very unpleasant, and it made Orion just want to go outside, walk to Hogsmeade, get on the Hogwarts Express, and never return to this school again. He wondered what the two girls that were right near Chub thought.

Then, Orion heard a louder "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEW!" and he turned around again. This time, Chub has wiped his nose with his hand, and Orion really didn't want to know the rest of the story, so he turned back and just stayed with his group.

"So what was going on out there?" Asked a completely oblivious Dante, who, unlike Latanya, didn't realize that anything that has an 'EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEW' has to have something to do with Chub. Of course, Orion feeling obliged to tell his dorm mate about the fat boy that was more or less a barf and snot magnet, got the exact same response as any sane person would give: "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEW" squealed Dante, Adrian (which just happened to be the very first thing she said), and of course Latanya.

"Well, with that on my mind, I'm going to go back to my dorm, you coming Adrian?" Latanya told the boys and asked her only dorm mate that wasn't a complete ditz. She got a quick nod in return from Adrian, and the two girls walked out of the Great Hall, went back up the stairs, with the intention of going back to their dorm.

"Well, I guess we should follow suit. I think I should owl my family, or at least my brother." Orion told Dante and Xeno, who had come back from the staircase smiling, as all three of them decided to walk back to their dorm, knowing very well it might take them an hour to find the door with the knocker again. As they walked up the second set of stairs it began to move around, and connect them to a very tall set of spiral stairs, that seemed to be leading outside.

"Well, let's explore!" Shouted Xeno. He ran past Orion and Dante up the stairs, where the other two quickly followed him. After the first few steps they noticed that the staircase they took up left them. They were alone, and stranded. So now it was absolutely needed that they had to explore back up this tower.

And up they went, and after about one hundred steps, the first floor of the tower was reachable. It wasn't housing all that much, just a few doors, and even though a few closed doors might seem exciting, the boys soon realized that they were just empty class rooms being History, Ancient Ruins, and Muggle Studies accordingly. "Well at least we know where History is." joked Dante as they turned back to the spiral stairs and continued on their journey upwards.

And once again after about one hundred steps they arrived at the second landing, which once again housed three closed doors. These ones being Charms, Transfiguration, and Defence Against the Dark Arts. And after the three boys remembered which room was for which class they climbed back up the stairs, and once again finding the third landing the found the Divination class, Arithmancy class, and the store room which housed thousands of books for every subject. And when the trio got up another three hundred and fifty five steps the ceiling came and they had no clue where to go, until Xeno, stretching and yawning, from having to wake up so early pushed on the roof and it lifted .

"Wow, to where does this lead?" asked Orion, trying to figure out why he said that sentence in such a dorky way. He pushed open on the trapdoor and they found themselves on the seventh floor, but behind what looked to be a one way mirror, which luckily was letting them look out the window side. Then, seeing the Ravenclaw door, they waited until no one could see them they opened up the mirror and walked over to the door and knocked.

At once the beak of the eagle opened, but instead of a bird's call, a soft musical voice said, "I hold no value, yet I'm considered priceless. You may deliver me, but I may not be received. I can be sought, bought, traded, and passed on. Many seek me, Some fear me, Many are rewarded if they share me. The House of Ravenclaw you shall belong, If you use your wit, wise ones, and can tell me what I am? "

"Uh... uh uh... guys." Xeno muttered seeing how he was never good at riddles, even his mother who was a riddle in herself he could never understand. "Seriously Xeno, its knowledge." Orion told him as the door opened without a sound. And the three boys walked in through the door and walked back up to their dorms.

When they arrived Orion opened his trunk and pulled out the map that James gave him and started muttered stuff like Abra-Kadabra (which got a gasp from Xeno, thinking Orion was saying the killing curse.), Hocus-Pocus, Potter Rules, Cannons Rule, Chudley Cannons Rule, and, finally, SPEW Rules. But nothing seemed to work for him, so Orion decided he should owl James and get the magic words once again. "Hey Xeno, can I use your owl? I need to send a message to my brother." He asked as he grabbed a piece of paper and wrote in a messy scrawl '_Need words for map, thanks. PS: I'm in Ravenclaw, sorry. Orion_'. Then, upon being given it, Xeno's owl, called Fang the screech owl, allowed the note to be tied to his leg. He jumped, and flew out the window and within a few seconds was out of view.

"So, are we going to make the trek back down to the Great Hall?" Orion said, standing up with a sudden movement. Xeno shrugged, and said "I don't see the point. I'm still full, and I don't want to get lost again." Dante looked out the window and asked, "I wonder what my parents are doing right now. They were both computer analysts, but, because computers are taking over everything right now, they got laid off this summer." Dante sighed and said, "If I didn't get the letter to go to Hogwarts, we would have been moving back to Italy to live with my Nonna."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Dante." Orion said, "Yeah, the Ministry for Magic is just starting to use computers too. I hear that sometimes they could be better than magic, but my father says that they are just Muggle rubbish." Orion sighed, and took out his wand from his pocket. He wanted to learn how to do real magic with it so bad, but James and Albus both told him that they wouldn't be doing anything but taking notes. How boring was taking notes?

"Look! Look!" Dante said, pointing out the window. "They are owls! Maybe your brother is sending a reply already!" Orion put down his wand and looked out the window. "Nope, that is definitely not Fang." Xeno said, as the owl perched on the sill and dropped a little piece of parchment out of his mouth. Dante, who was closest to the window, went over and picked it up.

"Hey, it's our course schedules. Tomorrow we start with Transfiguration, and then double Potions and then it is Herbology with Hufflepuff!" He announced, looking up and pushing his glasses back onto his bridge. "Ha! Ha! We have a class with Chub!" Xeno said, clapping his hands together, "I seriously cannot wait for that!" Dante just shuddered at the mention of Chub. Xeno smirked, and said "Give me that, Dante, old buddy old pal! I need to see what our classes are!"

"Lily, my sister, told me that we have the same classes according to the day of the week it is, do it is pretty simple!" Orion said, smiling, "You can read them out if you want to!" Xeno took the piece of paper from Dante and read aloud, "Tuesday we have Herbology, Transfiguration, yada, yada, yada… Ooh… We have Flying on Thursdays! That sounds wicked!"

Orion smiled, and said, "You know, my dad was one of the only first years ever to play Quidditch!" Then, Orion shut his mouth, remembering that everyone probably knew that, because his father was famous.

"You know, maybe it runs in the family! You could be amazing at Quidditch! Both your parents were naturals!" Xeno said, laughing. "Did any of your siblings play?" Orion gulped, and said, "Well, James and Albus tried out a couple times. However, they didn't make the team. My dad was surprised, not because he thought they were really good at Quidditch, because they weren't given any special treatment because they were his children!" Orion shifted his eyes, and then said, "However, my sister was a Keeper in her fifth year. In her sixth year, she was replaced by Kelly Tang, who now plays for the Holyhead Harpies.

"Plus, I tried it out a few times, and I'm not really good at anything except Beater, but then again, I'm not really strong enough. My dad says I could be good when I'm older, but I really have no idea. I don't think I'm going to make the Quidditch team this year." Orion said. He wasn't disappointed at all that he knew he wasn't going to make the Quidditch team.

"Oh!" Xeno said, smiling. "Well, my dad was amazing at Kweedutch, which was the version of Quidditch they had on the island! He played Getter, which I guess is like Seeker." Orion laughed; amused that Xeno's family came from a secluded island. He asked to hear more about Xeno's dad's lifestyle.

Orion learned that Xeno's dad never went to school or learned to read or write until he moved to England, because on the island, which Xeno said was never to be spoken of because it is so private that no one knows it exists besides the few who have lived and went there, there was no such thing as an education. Xeno's dad, Xeno King the twenty second, learned to read and then got a job at a store in Knockturn Alley, where he met Xeno's eventual mother, who worked there too. They eloped after knowing each other for only a month, and had Xeno not too long after. Unfortunately, Xeno's father did not know that Xeno's mother revelled in the Dark Arts, due to his barely knowing how to communicate with her. So, after his mom gave birth to him, his parents divorced, and his mom ran off, and he had never seen her again.

"Wow!" Orion said, intrigued by Xeno's entire family. "Both sides of your family have magnificent backgrounds. Do you even know your mother's name?"

"Melia. I don't know her last name, and my father can't remember, but I know that she was pure-blood, because she was very proud of it." Xeno said, "Maybe someone who was in cahoots with Voldemort!" Orion raised his eyebrows at the mention of the name of the man that his father had killed.

"Cool! That sounds really great. You know, there aren't many pure-bloods left in the world." Orion said, smiling. "This last generation of wizards and witches have been marrying an awful lot of Muggles and Muggle-borns. Do you think you'll carry the tradition?"

"Pssh! No! I hear that Melissa isn't pure-blood, and, right now, I'm planning on marrying her!" Xeno said, smugly, "So, the answer is no."

"Excuse me," Dante said, butting in after an hour of saying nothing, "But didn't you just meet this Melissa girl yesterday?"

"No, I've seen her before," Xeno said, smiling, "She lives in my town, but we've never spoken until yesterday. I've always liked her, but never knew she had a sister. I know she has two other brothers though."

After talking for a bit more, and Orion learning that Dante was a "curler", whatever that was, they looked again out the window of their dorm room. They studied the layout of the grounds. Dante pulled out a scarp piece of parchment and drew a very basic map of the landscape. Hoping that they could use the map not to get lost they went out of their dorm, and just as they closed the dorm door behind them they saw Adrian and Latanya come in through the common room entrance.

"Hey, did you get lost again? It's been hours since we've gone up from the Great Hall!" asked Orion with a slight smirk on his face and a whiny sound in his voice. He wanted to make them feel stupid. "Well, we're just leaving to go explore the grounds. After dinner of course, but if you want to come you can." Informed Orion. However, he heard a sound that made his heart drop; Melissa Carmichael just happen to leave her dorm at the same time that he asked the question, and yelled a very perky, "YEEEEEEEEEEEEES!" and sadly Xeno told her she could come along.

After a record thirty minutes, they found the Great Hall and quickly ate their steak. Unfortunately, Dante left the map upstairs, and he had to make the trek up and down in order to help them navigate through the grounds after dinner.

The kids went out the front door, and into the magnificent setting sun. Melissa let out a shrill "Ooooooooooh!" and Xeno said, "Isn't it wonderful, Melissa?" Latanya and Orion looked at each other and just groaned.

They walked down to the lake, and they all tried to look for mermaids. Dante said he saw one, but it turned out it was just a shoe floating in the water. Latanya said that her older sister once rode a mermaid, but Orion didn't believe her. His father had told them about the mermaids, and they wouldn't allow anyone to ride them, let alone come near them.

After a fun time of walking around outside, and just taking in the awe-inspiring views, not saying much, they walked back into the Entrance Hall. There, Latanya spotted out of the corner of her eye Lafawnduh, and they immediately stopped what they were doing to hug and try to catch up on the day they had been apart.

"This is Adrian Vella!" Latanya said to her sister, "This girl is quite shy, but nice when you get to know her. Or so she informs me! Who's the girl you are with?"

"Jean Lam is her name!" Lafawnduh said, pointing to Jean, "She's shy as well! She's also nice!" Xeno groaned, not wanting to listen to the twins droning on. "Let's go Melissa!" He said, walking over to the stairs leading up to the first floor.

"Have you seen Stella yet?" Latanya asked, smiling, "I love our family! We're all so unique. I'm in Ravenclaw, you're in Gryffindor, and Stella's in Hufflepuff!"

"No, not yet! I looked for her in the Great Hall, and I asked some of her friends where she was, but they said she had already eaten!" Lafawnduh said.

Just as Latanya was going to say something to respond, a loud voice came booming down the hallway: "Thirty minutes until first year's curfew! Thirty minutes, thank you!" Orion turned around, and saw that it was the Headmaster, Professor Albert. Orion looked at Dante, Adrian and Latanya and said, "I guess we better head up to the common room."

Latanya and Lafawnduh hugged their goodbyes, and the four of them went up to the common room, remembering where it was for the first time. The knocker asked them, "How come every time you come around my London, London Bridge wanna go down?" After the four kids stared at each other in confusion, a third year came up to them and said, "It's been hexed by some troublemakers in the fifth year. No need to worry, it only lasts for a few hours and the answer is always 'I'm a moron'." She said, as the door swung open.

After the girl went in, the kids looked at each other, and shrugged. They all went upstairs to their dorm rooms immediately after they went inside the common room, for they were all tired of walking up and down stairs all day. Dante and Orion opened their dorm room to find Xeno sitting there all alone, with his pyjamas on.

"Wow, it took you long enough!" Xeno said, tossing a ball to them. Orion caught it, and then threw it back to Xeno. "I thought you would never come back!"

"Well, we're here now!" Dante said, "We should better get to bed early, because we start classes tomorrow!" Dante ran into the bathroom after grabbing his belongings, and got ready, leaving Orion and Xeno alone. While Dante was in the bathroom, Xeno sat and just stared at Orion. This bugged him to the point of asking Xeno, "Why the hell are you doing that?" Luckily, Xeno didn't have the chance to answer, for Dante opened the door and interrupted them, announcing that it was Orion's turn to get ready!

Orion stepped into the bathroom. He relieved himself, and then he went to brush his teeth. While he was doing this, he stared at himself in the mirror. He didn't think he looked very much like his dad. His dad had glasses, and he didn't. His dad had green eyes, but he had brown eyes. His dad had messy black hair, but Orion had straight brown hair. He had his mother's face shape as well. If his last name wasn't Potter, no one would even know that he was related to Harry, let alone his son.

After getting ready, he turned the light off in the bathroom, and slumped back to his bed, thinking about his first class tomorrow, which was Transfiguration with Professor… what's her face. He got into his bed, went beneath the covers, and then lay down on his pillow, hearing Dante's soft snores right across from him.

Orion turned around in his bed to face Xeno, but got a bit of a startle to see that Xeno was staring at him. Orion gulped, and asked "Seriously, what's up?"

Xeno stared at him and whispered, "Did you know that my Father didn't abandon his island because he wanted to? It was because the island was in part of a civil war. His dad had just died, and he surrendered to the rebels, who outnumbered his men by tons, and he was kicked off the island, never to return again."

Orion looked into Xeno's eyes, and said "I'm sorry, man." Then he blinked, and was about to turn over when Xeno said, "Wait! There's something else I have to tell you!" Orion looked back at Xeno. "You have my full attention."

Xeno stared at Orion some more and said, "I really am not supposed to tell anybody this, and haven't told anybody this before, but if the rebels hadn't taken over the island, my dad would be still on there. Plus, he would be…" Xeno swallowed, closed his eyes as if he was thinking twice before saying what he was about to say, and then said, "He would have been king of the island."

Orion's eyes widened, and then he saw Xeno bite his lip, unsure of what to say next. Orion turned his head to the side, trying to use his body language to say that he didn't want Xeno to say anymore. Then, he saw Xeno flip over, and curl up in a ball, muttering "I probably would have been the crown prince. Of course, he would have had to have met my mother for me to exist."

Orion really had nothing left in him, so he also flipped over to the other side of the bed. And, to the sounds of Dante's snores and the thoughts running wild about Xeno's family's apparent monarchy, he fell asleep almost instantly.

* * *

**Good, good, so I hope you guys loved this chapter as much as we did. Remember to R&R. Thanks.**

**Hey10224 and xking23**


	4. The First Lesson

**Hello, everyone! I know this has not been updated in over a year, but we've finally got some reviews and are going to try and update this once every two days for the next little while. In the mean time, enjoy this new chapter!**

* * *

James Sirius Potter woke up in the morning with a black screech owl pecking on his window. He looked at his clock. Noticing that it was ten o'clock, he quite happily opened the window so that the owl could come inside. He was supposed to be up an hour ago so he could clean up since his siblings were coming to visit him today.

"Well I guess we better open you up." He muttered as he gave a quick yawn and ripped the letter off of the owl's leg. The letter was from Orion. That was for sure. James could tell easily by the messy scrawl of his brothers hand writing.

He quickly read the letter over as he got changed. "Wow, this is some rather unexpected news..." he said to himself as he read it again. His youngest brother was in Ravenclaw. He couldn't believe it. After he finished reading it for the fifth time, he heard two pops coming from the living room, followed by some small chatter and a little giggle.

"Hey guys." James yelled as he walked into the living room, Orion's letter in hand. Seeing his siblings together in one place was something that did not happen very often. After Hogwarts, between all of their jobs and social lives, they rarely had time to see each other, besides holidays and the odd time they ran into each other in Diagon Alley.

"Hey, James. What do you have there?" Albus asked as he noticed the letter in James' hand.

"Oh, just a letter from Orion, just a little something about a gift I gave him. Oh yeah, and he got sorted into..." James hesitated, wondering if he should spill Orion's secret. He didn't want to be the one to tell Lily and Albus, but they were here and he knew that Orion might be too ashamed to tell his siblings if he knew he didn't have to.

"Sorted into where James?" asked Lily, puzzled. James took a deep breath and decided he would reveal the news. "Into Ravenclaw." James told them slightly ashamed for his own brother. "But it's no big deal, you were almost sorted there anyway, Lil." James told them. Hopefully they wouldn't be too upset to have their family's streak of being in Gryffindor broken. "Just don't tell Harry and Ginny, I'm sure Orion wants to do that himself." James told them as he shot a dirty look to Albus, whose head was already in the fireplace and talking frantically.

"Too late." Albus muttered as he pulled his head out of the fireplace, and smiled towards his brother and sister.

"Really, Albus?" James said, sighing. "Oh well, I'm just going to go reply to Orion and then we can have a chat." James told them as he pulled a quill out of his pocket.

_Hey Orion,  
_I solemnly swear I am up to no good_ to get it to open, and then _Mischief Managed_ to get it to become a blank piece of parchment again. And good luck in Ravenclaw, they always seem to have some of the prettiest girls.  
See you at Christmas,  
James S. Potter.  
_

James tied the letter onto the screech owl's leg that was still in his bedroom and pushed the owl out the window. He walked back into the living room and thumped down on the couch beside Albus, who was talking to Lily. She was sitting in the leather reclining armchair. They were talking about Orion and his Ravenclaw sorting.

"It's not that bad, I was almost put into Ravenclaw. I just wanted to be a Gryffindor more." Lily told Albus who almost immediately scoffed. He was thrown straight into Gryffindor the moment the hat touched his head.

"He will do fine; it just means he's smart. Remember, Luna Scamander was sorted into Ravenclaw, and even with her... oddities she was very smart, nice, and brave." James told Albus, slightly disappointed by his disappointment in Orion. There was nothing wrong with Ravenclaw, and seeing how scared Albus was about being sorted into Slytherin, he had no reason to be upset at Orion for being sorted into the second best house.

"Whatever. Either way I can't imagine what Uncle Ron would think. He always thought that it would be his children to be sorted out of Gryffindor, especially with Aunt Hermione's brains in the gene pool." Albus told them as he took a sip of his tea.

"Either way there is nothing wrong, just... I don't know. Anyways, I have work to go to. I'll talk to you guys later." James said as he stood up, along with Lily and Albus, and all three of them Apparated to their work.

* * *

Back at Hogwarts, Xeno and Orion awoke to the sound of a very annoying beep of somebody's alarm clock. Dante woke up to a few pillows to the face. "Oh hey guys, what timing? My alarm just went off." Dante sheepishly muttered as he stood up and knocked the pillows off of his face. Then, Dante proceeded to walk into the bathroom.

"Wow, seriously we need to do something about that clock." Xeno muttered, still half asleep as he stood up and pushed his hair back. But when he heard Melissa's voice coming from outside in the common room, he decided he should thank Dante. "Bye Orion! I'll see you at breakfast." He told Orion as he did some quick changing and threw on his robes. Then, Xeno walked out of the dorm room. While the door was closing behind him, Orion heard a very fake sounding 'Oh hey Melissa, what are you doing here?'

"Prat." muttered Orion as he rubbed his eyes and sat up slightly, wondering if he would make it to breakfast this morning. But then he remembered that the alarm went off at 8 o'clock and he had plenty of time to get to the Great Hall, especially since he knew his way around the castle much better than he did yesterday. "Wonder if James has the owl yet?" He asked as he saw Dante leave the bathroom.

When Orion was done in the bathroom, he and Dante both made their way down into the common room and, with no sign of any of their friends; they walked through the entrance of the common room and walked down the nearest set of stairs. Then, they took another set and within minutes they were in the entrance hall, and by the time they walked to the door to the Great Hall, they could smell all of the food that was being served. It even smelt hot and fresh, unlike last time.

Orion opened the door to the Great Hall and noticed that there was a lot more people in there this time then there was yesterday when he finally got to breakfast. He and Dante saw Melissa and Xeno sitting at one end of the table and Latanya and Adrian sitting at the other end. Not wanting to take sides in their little fight, both Dante and Orion decided it was best to go sit in an open space as far away from both of the groups as possible. And quite quickly, Orion and Dante ate their breakfast so that they could get back to the dorm and grab their books before the first day of classes, which started at eleven o'clock.

"This place is like the ultimate place if you wanted to get in shape!" Dante said, panting behind Orion up the stairs, "All we do is go up and down, and up and down stairs!"

"Oh come off it!" Orion said, rolling his eyes, "You can't tell me you're in that bad of shape. You're eleven for crying out loud!"

After getting all of their books, they made it to Transfiguration, with moments to spare. They saw Xeno sitting with Melissa, and Latanya sitting behind Melissa. Orion assumed this was some plan put out to bug her. Adrian was sitting beside Latanya. Since they were sharing the class with the Slytherins, Orion saw Justin Jones from his compartment on the Hogwarts Express. He was sitting on the other side of the room, though, for it seemed that the Ravenclaws were sitting with the Ravenclaws and the Slytherins were sitting with the Slytherins.

The classroom for Transfiguration was rather large, but, since there was only going to be twenty-four students being taught this class, almost all of the desks were on the sides, leaving twenty-four desks. Since twenty-two of them were filled, Orion had to sit beside a curly haired girl he didn't know, and Dante had to sit beside an Asian boy who looked very nervous.

After what seemed like hours of anticipation, the professor walked in the class. She was tall, old, pale, very large, and seemed sort of mean. She had long black hair that ran down her robes almost to the floor. She had small glasses at the end of her nose. Orion didn't think that he would want to ever meet her in a dark alley.

"My name is Professor Lee." She said, putting her name up on the blackboard. "I will be your Transfigurations teacher." She nodded her head, even though she had nothing to nod to, and took a list off of her desk. "I can see that there should be everyone here, but may I please go down the class list to see if you are in the right class?" Everyone looked at each other, not knowing what to say, or if they should answer.

"Ok, I will first go through the Ravenclaw class list. Is Quinton Baradia here?" She asked, even though no one had given her permission yet. The Indian boy who was sitting at the back of the class nervously raised his hand.

"I'm assuming you are Muggle-born." Professor Lee said, and before Quinton had a chance to answer, she said, "Melissa Carmichael!" Melissa raised her hand high, and smiled. Orion looked back and saw Latanya rolling her eyes.

"You must be related to Gary, Loretta and Boyd." Professor Lee said, but then immediately called the next person's name. Then she called the next person's name. Then she called the next person's name.

She kept on stating something she assumed about each person, and hadn't given anyone a chance to speak either. Then, she called out, "Well, isn't that something, there's another Potter." She went over to the chair at her desk, and sat down. She took off her glasses, which were attached to strings going around her neck, and said, "Is Orion here, please?"

Everyone in the class started staring at him, and Orion quickly said, "Here." Professor Lee looked at him. She looked like she was looking at a confusing question, or was just asked a complicating riddle. She then said something that no one had expected her to say,

"You must have been a mistake."

* * *

Harry waved goodbye to Ron, and then closed up the Auror's office. It was really late at night, and he just wanted to get home. He was quite tired, and he had had a very rough day at work. After going to the Atrium, and walking into one of the fireplaces, he apparated back right outside his house.

His house was not much, really. It looked more like a Muggle's house from the outside than a wizard's house. He liked it, because it was practical, unlike the Burrow. He walked inside the house, and felt immediately at home. It was a great house, five bedrooms, great kitchen, nice view of the hills, and beautiful painting and decorations. He walked into the living room, where he sat in his chair, and, with a flick of his wand, summoned some tea. As he sipped his tea, Ginny came in the room from upstairs and sat in the chair beside him.

"I heard from Albus today," Ginny said, getting some tea for herself, "He informed me that Orion was sorted into Ravenclaw."

Harry, swallowing his tea, put the cup down on the table beside him and said, "Ah! Well, I'm happy for him. He showed that not every family has to be in the same house." He got up, and went to the fridge to look what he could possibly have for a bite to eat. Maybe some biscuits or scones.

"Great, great!" Ginny said, coming into the kitchen behind Harry. "You know, I sort of thought that he would be sorted into that house. He's such a clever boy. Very handsome as well, he is. Sometimes I think that he got all the good genes we could give him!" She flicked her wand and got the scones off the counter and gave one to Harry.

"Yeah, you're right." Harry said, "He was our little surprise, and I wouldn't change what happened for the world!" He walked back over to his chair and sat down, Ginny sitting right beside him.

After a few moments of awkward silence, Ginny finally decided like it was a good time to start speaking. "He must be overjoyed he's in Ravenclaw. Now he can avoid his cousin Louis as much as he pleases!" Harry, almost spitting out his tea, started laughing. "Have you told Bill to try to make him less of a goody-goody?" Harry said between his guffawing.

Ginny sighed, and got up to massage Harry's shoulders. "I heard the Aurors had a rough day at work today. Is Melia causing trouble again at the Ministry?"

"No, no, remember, Ginny, she was convicted of using the Imperius curse on Kingsley Shacklebolt, remember?" Harry paused, taking his last sip, "She's in Azkaban for 15-20 years!"

Ginny still looked a bit unnerved. "Then what is it this time? I heard there may have been a break-in in Knockturn Alley!"

Harry took his hand and sort of whacked Ginny's hands off of his shoulder. Ginny looked a bit confused. He stood up and turned to face Ginny. He then said in a stern voice, "Ginny, you of all people should know that the Daily Prophet is mostly based on rumours and absolute rubbish! I mean, you work there."

Ginny swallowed and said, "Yes, I'm sorry. Sometimes I get caught up in the gossip. Remember that time I accidentally reported that Bulgaria beat England in the semi-finals of the Quidditch World Cup? Boy, was I fined for that blunder! The game wasn't even until the next day!"

"I definitely remember, Ginny." Harry said, gritting his teeth, "Please don't bring it up. That was 1000 galleons we could have used!"

Just before Ginny was going to open her mouth and say anything, there was a knock at the door. Harry looked at Ginny. Ginny shrugged. It was quite unusual for them to get any knock on the door. Usually, if people came to call, they would go by Floo powder, and the only people who used the front door were Harry and Ginny.

"It can't be any of our children." Harry said, "James is still in a meeting at the Hit Wizard's office. Albus is still at St. Mungo's. Lily may be out all night with a case of a Muggle being hit by a wandering spell!" Ginny gulped, and said, "It might be Genesis Crowley. I'll get it."

Harry couldn't help but chuckle. Genesis Crowley was a woman that was just promoted to Junior Quidditch Correspondent last week, and was giving Ginny a bit of a hard time. Ginny had no idea how Genesis, of all people, was put in the new position because she seemed to not know anything at all. She even had to ask how many points you get when the Seeker gets the Golden Snitch. At the Daily Prophet, especially if you work in the Quidditch section, that is supposed to be required knowledge for trainees, let alone Junior Correspondents.

Ginny walked over to the door, while Harry finished off his scone. He had a moment in peace to himself, and he looked at the artwork on the walls. His favourite was one that Victoire Weasley, his niece, had painted herself. It was of a pineapple, and the pineapple was pink, and the stem was turquoise. It was very modern, and it fit well with the rest of the paintings in the living room. It also matched the furniture completely. Harry loved his house, with all of its quirks and unknowables.

"Harry." Ginny said in a sombre, solemn voice. Harry turned and saw Ginny, who looked noticeably paler than usual, standing behind the island in the kitchen. "It's Ron. He's got something to say to you."

Harry sprang up impatiently, knowing that it must be urgent. Ron didn't just come to Harry's house uninvited, and he told everything that he told to Harry to Ginny. Harry walked over to the front door, and saw Ron. He also looked like he had just seen a ghost, or was a ghost for that matter. His red hair was going every which way.

"Harry. It's urgent. Ministry orders. Can't explain it thoroughly. You must come now!" Ron said, motioning that Harry should leave fast. Harry looked back at Ginny in the kitchen who said, "Go, Harry. I know it'll all be ok." Harry looked into the night sky and wondered what would be so important that would make him have to go overtime. He groaned, and asked Ron, "Do I need anything?"

"Look, Harry, there is no time! We must go now!" Ron said, grabbing Harry's wrist. Harry took one final look at Ginny before he was marched by Ron outside of his own house. He felt uncomfortable. He knew that this must be serious, yet he didn't know what it was. He had never been taken out so urgently before.

Ron walked to the edge of the street and took out his wand. He muttered, "Ok, Harry. You have to know where we are apparating. It's my duty to tell you." But before Ron could say anything more, Harry asked, "Why didn't they tell me this first? I'm the head Auror for crying out loud. How did you find out about this first?"

Ron gulped and said in a whisper, "This has nothing to do with Aurors. I'm sorry I said that the Ministry was involved, but I had to get you out of there somehow. Look, we're apparating to Hogsmeade. We need to get to the Forbidden Forest."

Harry looked at Ron, puzzled. Ron seemed so off, he didn't know if he could believe him. "Ron, I'm not going anywhere until I know why I'm doing it. What the hell is going on, and how come I don't even know about it?"

Ron gulped, looked into Harry's eyes and said, "Do you trust me?"

Harry couldn't resist that look, and said, "Yes, I do."

They then immediately went to Hogsmeade. Harry was quite surprised to find that, when they got to Hogsmeade, everything seemed absolutely normal. He looked at Ron and said, "I'm sorry, mate, but I'm not going a step further until I know exactly what's happening."

Ron looked at him, and sighed. "Ok, ok, there's just this thing that's happening in the Forbidden Forest. There's been this thing they reported that Centaurs are turning up missing lately. Someone suggests it's a hate crime. Hermione thinks it's serious. She urged us to go there before it's too late."

Harry turned his head and said, "Are you ok? You know Aurors don't deal with that kind of stuff. Let's not get mixed in with the wrong kind of stuff."

Ron shook his head. "They think that this is being done by a dark wizard, and we have to go and capture him, Harry!"

Harry was outraged. He didn't know what to believe. He was so confused. Ron told him that they had some urgent thing to go to, and now this bombshell? He was so infuriated that he could barely move. Wait... Harry tried to move his arm.

He couldn't move!

"Ok, Ron, this isn't funny." Harry said. "Why can't I move?"

Ron smiled and went up to Harry. He whispered in his ear and said, "I'm sorry I have to do this. But it's entirely necessary."

Then, Harry felt a great weight on the back of his head and, unable to defend himself, he fell hard on the concrete.

* * *

**Ooh, cliffhanger! Please R and R, and feel free to make any suggestions. :)**


	5. Revealing Mischief

**Right on schedule, here's our next chapter. :) Enjoy.**

* * *

"That was horrible" Orion muttered as him and his friends sat in the Great Hall exhausted after their first day. "I mean Potions was horrible. That Slytherin guy... Justin... I think... he almost killed us all, and then there was Ruth and Quinton losing 50 points on the first day!"

Xeno sighed. He had made his potion beautifully, but did he get any points for it? No! The stupid Slytherins did for their less than perfect potion. "Well at least Herbology was interesting and we got some points back because of Melissa. She's so smart isn't she?" Xeno pointed out as he stared absent-mindedly at his food.

Adrian sat quietly eating. Only Latayna had heard her speak all day. But everyone heard her squeal in potions. "Professor Riche had no reason to yell at you. You were doing fine until he started breathing down your neck. I swear, he should go watch the Slytherins. They were the ones that caused the explosion." Dante told her as he stuffed his face with chicken.

Not much was said after that. There was a speech; something about making sure you listened to the teachers, and what they or students of authority say is law. However, everything else was lost with Orion. His mind kept replaying the same six words over and over again: "You must have been a mistake." Albus had told him that before, but there's a difference between a teacher and your annoying brother. The food lost its taste as his mind drifted further away from reality. Those words being repeated over and over again in his mind, now at a deafening volume, he closed his eyes trying to block out the sound, the feel of shame flowed through him. The judgement of his friends, his classmates, his teachers, everyone that heard, or has heard now, and he can hear them laugh, hear them taunt him. He opened his eyes and in a flash of light, everything stopped. Slowly looking around he noticed that everyone else was almost done eating. He felt like he barely had a bite, but as he looked down he noticed that he ate everything and that he was indeed full.

"Tomorrow should be better," Latanya started to rant, "I mean it can't get worse. Plus, we have Charms first tomorrow. I mean have you seen the teacher? He like just graduated, and he is really cute. Plus, my sister is there and she says that her friends have seen me around and want to meet me. Apparently one of them is like a total sweet heart. Jayden, I think, then Colton is like the model Gryffindor. Apparently he already knows a ton of spells and has even fought some creatures or something." Latayna took a second to breathe and started up again, "Adrian thinks the teacher shouldn't be allowed to teach since he went to school with like half the students or something and he might have favouritism or something. OH! And he's from like Canada or something, so his accent is super hot! All I know is that he spent a year tying to restart the Moose Jaw Meteors when he was in his seventh year and now he teaches here. I swear he is amazing... Adrian says his name is Woodward, and that he actually got all O's on his OWLs and NEWTs. The smartest student in the past 30 years or something!" She finished as she stood up and gave a good bye wave to her sister in Gryffindor.

Orion stood up, unsure about anything that was just said. He still wasn't entirely with it, but at least he could focus on the Herbology assignment. If he remembered correctly, it was just a short paper about the importance of sunlight in a witch's garden. He stood up and followed his friends out... except Xeno. Xeno slowed down to walk with Melissa and Juniper, two completely different girls that for some reason got along. There was no use waiting for him. He wouldn't leave Melissa for anything.

"He acts like a lost puppy." Orion mumbled as he rounded up the final staircase and arrived at the landing of the common room. Everyone else was gathered around the door, and they all looked very stumped. "What's the problem?" Orion asked Adrian, who of course didn't answer.

Then, the door knob opened its mouth:

_Think of a person that lives in disguise,_  
_a person that deals with secrets and tells naught but lies._  
_Next tell me what's always the last thing to mend,_  
_a middle of middle and end of the end?_  
_Now tell me the sound so often heard,_  
_during a search for a hard-to-find word._  
_Now string them together and answer me this,_  
_which creature would you be unwilling to kiss?_

Latayna opened her mouth "Uh... uh .. uh... anyone?" she asked. She didn't want to be locked out all night. Her eyes drifted to the floor, defeated. Then, she saw a large dark glob crawl along her foot. Her eyes widened. "Sp... sp... spider!" she yelled, trying to kick it off. Then Adrian actually spoke. "Spider" she told the door knob and it swung open.

"Nice work Adrian!" Dante exclaimed as he held the door open for the ladies and Orion to enter. "I mean how lucky were we? Phew, I did not want to sleep outside tonight..." He muttered to Adrian. Adrian just shrugged as she skipped up the stairs followed by Latayna.

"I just wanted to talk to her..." Dante said sadly, "Why won't she talk to me?"

"Give it up man, I mean I don't think Adrian will have much to do with anyone." Orion told him as he ran to his room to grab his supplies to work on the Herbology assignment. As he returned to the common room, he could see Xeno holding the door open for Juniper and Melissa. "Hey guys, what took you so long? Got lost in each other's eyes?" he teased as he and Dante left for the library. Xeno blew a raspberry at them.

When they got to the library, Orion sat down at a table, tossed his parchment down, and picked up his quill. "So, we don't have any research to do for this, right?" Orion asked, "So, why are we here?" He asked Dante. He got a shrug as an answer. Orion sighed. "Come on, I guess we can at least get it done here." Dante muttered as he started writing his essay.

Although Orion knew very little about plants, let alone magical ones, he learnt a bit helping his mom out back. Orion ended up finishing his essay in about three hours and then helped Dante for another hour. After they finished, they headed back up to the common room, getting in easily because they already knew the answer to the riddle. They walked into the common room and saw Latanya and Adrian sitting down together playing wizard's chess.

"Checkmate." Latanya said as the king exploded. Adrian made an annoyed grunt. Latanya extended her hand. "Come on, let's shake hands," Latanya said, "my parents always told me that after a game of wizard's chess, you should shake your opponent's hand." Adrian rolled her eyes and grudgingly took Latanya's extended hand and shook it.

"Hey, have you guys finished your assignments already?" Dante asked. Adrian and Latanya turned to look at him. Latanya giggled and said, "You two did that already? Man, the assignment wasn't due until next week!"

Orion groaned. Dante said to him, "Well, at least it's done and over with", but Orion liked to leave things to the last minute so he was upset that he hadn't done so. He stormed over to the stairs leading up to his bedroom, and walked up them as fast as he could. Dante followed close behind.

As Orion got into the room, he noticed Xeno lying on his bed. Orion decided to ignore him and he went and sat on his own bed. He didn't really know why he was upset, he just was. Plus, he was tired. If he was going to get up at God knows what hour Dante was going to set the alarm for tomorrow, he should probably get to sleep soon.

"Oy, Orion!" Xeno said, "Look! It's Fang!" Orion turned around and saw that out the window was a black screech owl with a note around its leg. Orion walked over to the window and opened it. Then, he proceeded to take off the note from its leg and read. Fang flew over and perched himself inside his own birdcage.

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good." Orion said, grinning and putting the note into his cloak pocket. Xeno looked over at Orion, puzzled. "What did you do?" he asked. Orion turned to him and said, "Nothing. It's just the password to open the map my brother gave me." Orion ran over to his trunk and opened it, fetching out the piece of parchment.

"Apparently if I say the password, it's going to light up and show me everything that's going on in this castle," Orion said as he motioned for Xeno and Dante to gather around. He held the piece of parchment in the air, put his wand against it, and muttered loudly and triumphantly, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

At first, it appeared as if nothing had happened. Dante looked slightly disappointed. "Dude, what the hell?" Xeno said. But then, they realized that there was green ink that was suddenly appearing on the paper. After a short while, they became legible words.

"Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs?" Dante said, reading out loud. "Who are they?"

"Prongs was my grandfather," Orion said. Dante looked at him in awe, wondering if every single person in Orion's family did something special in some way. Xeno just rolled his eyes and said, "Duh! And Moony was Remus Lupin, Padfoot was Sirius Black, and Wormtail was the man who accused Sirius Black of killing all of those Muggles but did it himself, Peter Pettigrew. This is old news."

Dante looked a bit embarrassed not having known this. He had missed out on so much growing up with parents who didn't even know magic existed. He wished he was raised in a place where he would have learned the same history as his newfound friends. He felt a little unaccepted in a way, and it made him distressed.

"Holy crap! It's a map!" Xeno said, pointing to the now apparent diagram that appeared in front of them. And sure enough it was a brilliant map. It had little tiny ink dots moving around, each labelled with the names of the people they represented under them. It had the entire Hogwarts grounds on it too, in complete detail. Dante felt a little sad that he had spent time making a map of the grounds last night, as it now seemed like a waste of time.

"We could spy on everyone with this!" Xeno said, grabbing it out of Orion's hands. "Hey!" Orion exclaimed, "It's mine, give it back!"

"I wonder where Melissa is right now!" Xeno said, searching the grounds for her little dot. "Orion, can I keep this. It'll let me keep tabs on Melissa all day long. I love it!"

"No, you pervert slash stalker!" Orion said, crossing his arms together, "This is only going to be used in case of emergencies and if we get lost. Now give it back, or I swear I will make you give it back to me!"

"Oh, look. Melissa was in her room all along," Xeno remarked, "Boring! I wish she was doing something interesting so I could watch her."

"Are you crazy? Are you listening to yourself speak?" Orion said, snatching the map back from Xeno, "You sound like a certifiably crazy stalker! Why do you even care about Melissa at all, we're too young to like girls at this age!"

"I know, I know. It's just..." Xeno started to speak, but proceeded in biting his lip. Xeno stared off into space for a while, and there was a bit of awkward silence. Then, Xeno got up and went over into the bathroom. Dante and Orion looked at each other, confused, and they both shrugged. They didn't really want to get into it since they were already annoyed by his behaviour anyways.

"This is a cool map!" Dante said, smiling. "I wish I had something as cool as this. All I have at home is my high-tech laptop."

"What's a laptop?" Orion asked, scrunching his face up, "You're weird, Dante." He got up, and walked over to his bed, still amazed at how cool his grandfather was for making this.

Then, Xeno walked out of the bathroom in his pyjamas and walked right up to his bed. He jumped onto his bed and turned away. Dante and Orion again looked at each other, more confused. What was with Xeno? Oh well, it didn't concern them at all.

"I guess we should probably head to bed." Dante said, "Do you want to set the alarm for 7:45 tomorrow morning? I found that today we didn't have nearly enough time to get everything ready to make it to our first class."

"NO!" Orion yelled, "8 o'clock is early enough." Orion suddenly thought back to his old house and how his parents let him sleep in until 10 everyday. He was starting to get a little homesick, but he didn't want anybody to know that.

"Fine, eight o'clock it is." Dante said, sighing as he walked into the bathroom. Orion looked down at the Marauder's Map again, semi-interested. He didn't really have any purpose to look at it anymore so he decided he had better just put it away. He took the note out of his pocket and looked to see what the words were to close it again.

"Mischief managed." Orion said, touching his wand to the map as everything started to disappear. He wondered why his grandfather had made the map seem like it was something that was bad and mischievous when in actuality it was very practical and not to mention super cool. He put the map back into his trunk and waited until Dante got out of the bathroom. It always took a while for Dante to get changed because he always had problems putting his shirt on. Orion impatiently waited on his bed. Xeno wasn't making a peep, but he was far from asleep.

Finally, after what seemed like forty seven hours or something, Dante got out of the bathroom and Orion ran inside and got ready as quickly as he could. He was excited for tomorrow, because he really wanted to take Defence Against the Dark Arts. His father was apparently very good at it, and so were James and Lily. He hoped that maybe he could be like his family in some way and be good at it too. Then again, if he wasn't good at it nor was Albus so at least he wouldn't be alone. And Charms seemed like a pretty cool class too, and he wanted to see how young Professor Woodward was because Latanya went on a rant about that particular subject.

Orion walked out of the bathroom and jumped onto his bed, ready to sleep. Dante had already turned the lights off and Orion was pretty sure that the snores he heard were coming from him. Orion was kind of jealous of Dante for being able to knock himself out so efficiently. Orion only fell asleep quickly if he had had a good day, and this day was only mediocre. Sure, the map was pretty cool, and Herbology was fun. It was nice seeing Professor Longbottom (a name that Xeno apparently finds very funny), a friend of the family who sometimes came to visit back home. Orion was glad that he had a teacher that wasn't completely foreign to him. Also, it was fun seeing Chub in Herbology. Chub accidentally knocked over an entire rack of plants and made class get dismissed five minutes early. Orion was starting to kind of like the idea of Chub, though he had better start controlling his bodily functions because Orion would not fully appreciate him until then.

However, the day also had some pretty bad parts. Transfiguration was a disaster. After Professor Lee declared him a mistake, which he barely even understood, it went all downhill from there. Professor Lee was kind of an evil bitch and made them take notes on why Transfiguration is important all class. Also, Potions was pretty terrible too. Professor Riche was a pureblood Slytherin, so of course he naturally loved all the Slytherin students and hated the Ravenclaws. Plus, Quinton and Ruth both made apparently "less than satisfactory" potions and got twenty-five points taken away each. The Slytherins got points _given_ to them even though Justin Jones exploded his cauldron. Apparently, Professor Riche "didn't see it" so "it never happened".

Oh well, Orion thought, that day is over. Tomorrow's a new day. Maybe Potions and Transfiguration will be better tomorrow. He started to close his eyes slowly and fall asleep when he heard his name. He jolted his eyes open.

"Orion." Xeno whispered a second time. Orion looked over to where he presumed Xeno's bed was, because it was dark in the room so he couldn't really see.

"What is it?" Orion asked, curiously, hoping that maybe Xeno would tell him why he was acting so strangely.

"It's my mom," Xeno said, and Orion could hear him sniffle a little bit, "I think about her all the time, even if I don't seem like I do."

Orion didn't really know how to react to that. His parents have always been there for him, and he's known them. He wondered how it felt to have been basically abandoned by one of his parents. It must make Xeno feel horrible. He felt a bit of pity for him.

"She must have been bad." Xeno said, "My dad always talks about how he found her doing something one day... something terrible..." Xeno paused, and made a bit of a whimpering sound. Orion was listening intently. He found it slightly ironic how fascinated he was hearing Xeno's backstory when he was the son of the most famous wizard on Earth.

"I don't remember my mom..." Xeno admitted, "I try to remember her... it's just that I was not yet one year old when she left... I can't remember... only her name." Orion could tell that Xeno was crying a little, but Orion wasn't going to tell anybody. He wasn't mean like that.

"I never had a mother figure growing up..." Xeno said, "It was just me and my dad... my dad never dated again after my mom went away, so there were never any girls around me." Xeno paused to blow his nose. "I was always home... my father and I were always together... never really been with girls... except Melissa. She's the only one I've seen all these years... The first I met...

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry I'm telling you this. You don't want to hear this..." Xeno said.

"No, do go on!" Orion said, hoping Xeno wouldn't stop in the middle of his story.

"Okay..." Xeno said, blowing his nose again, "Well... Melissa is sort of special to me... she represents a lot to me... my mother, women, another view point... I feel kind of protective of her for some reason... or maybe that she is protecting me... I don't know, but Melissa is important to me... she kind of gives me hope... hope that maybe I'll see my mother again one day..."

Orion laid there, completely engulfed by what Xeno was saying to him. He was completely and utterly shocked at what Xeno was saying. Melissa was the first girl he ever knew? That must be pretty weird, living your life without the influence of a girl, even if they were sometimes weird and mysterious. All of a sudden, Orion gained a bit more respect for Xeno. He thought that Xeno was just someone who was a bit of a love-struck eleven year old, but it was much, much more complicated than that.

"So, please... don't say anything about this to Dante..." Xeno said, "Or Latanya. Especially not to Melissa. If she found out this, she might hate me. And I can't lose her like I lost my mom..."

"I wouldn't dare." Orion said, and he was telling the complete and utter truth.

"Good, now go to bed and try to forget I ever told you this." Xeno said, and that was the last thing that was said that night.

Orion laid back his head on his pillow. He was completely taken aback by this new information that he had acquired in these last moments of the day. Even if Xeno didn't tell him a lot, he had told him enough. Orion tried to put himself in Xeno's shoes in his mind, but he just couldn't relate. No women in his life? That must have thrown everything out of whack for him as a child.

Orion then abruptly thought of his own father's upbringing. His dad's parents killed before he was born, left to live with his borderline abusive aunt and uncle, not allowed to know who he was. He couldn't help but notice the similarities in the two stories. Both were deprived of something throughout their childhood and they both were missing information about their true families. Orion thought hard about his dad and wondered how he coped with it all, being the chosen one, living his life like he did. It must have been very difficult. Then, Orion thought of the man his father had killed, and everything in Orion's brain was turned upside down. Why did his father have to kill that man? Why? No matter how horrible he was, why did he have to kill him? What was wrong with just taking him to Azkaban for life? His father did not seem like a killer to him. So why was he?

And on that haunting note, Orion's eyes glued shut and he fell asleep, filled with so many questions left unanswered. It was not going to be a good sleep.

* * *

The clock by the fireplace kept ticking away. Hermione wouldn't dare take her eyes off of it now. She had been staring at it for what seemed like days. The house was very empty, and at this time Hermione was accustomed to a house with more people. Well, one person in particular. That person was none other than Ronald Weasley, who was now five hours late getting home from work.

Hermione, not keeping her eyes off the clock, wondered why this was the case. If he was going to be late, if he was going to be working overtime, he would have let her know. Yet today, he had done nothing of the sort. Hermione was left to wonder why he hadn't come home, all alone in the agony of her thoughts that something horrible must have happened to him.

But no, nothing horrible had happened; he had just forgotten to inform her about this. It was no big deal, just a late meeting, maybe an unexpected situation that had arose at the office. He was fine, nothing was wrong. Nothing was wrong. Nothing at all was wrong.

Hermione finally decided that she should stand up. Sitting down waiting was going to do no good. It was past the time she felt comfortable doing nothing about this. She was going to do something about it. She was going to go see Harry and Ginny. They'd know where Ron was. She was sure of it. They must know, she thought as she went and got some floo powder, threw it into the fireplace and went inside.

"Potter house," Hermione said as clear as she could, and she was transported instantaneously into the very familiar and friendly house that was owned by Harry and Ginny. It was very dark in the house, which was odd for this hour. She hoped she wasn't trespassing at a bad time as she quietly took one step out of the fireplace and onto common ground.

She looked around. Everything was pitch black. It was kind of unsettling because the Potter household was usually lit up and beautiful looking, which was not the case at the moment. Maybe Harry hadn't come home either? No, no, it wasn't doing any good thinking about anything horrible like that, Hermione thought as she tiptoed her way into the kitchen. The way she was tiptoeing through the seemingly empty and dark house made her seem sort of like a criminal. It unnerved her slightly, but she just shrugged off the feeling. All she hoped was that Ginny didn't turn the lights on and scream at her. She was not in the mood to give anyone a scare in her state.

She went into the kitchen and that was when she realized that she should probably light up her wand to see what was up. "Lumos," Hermione said, and she suddenly could see a lot better. The kitchen was empty, and she could see that there was some tea sitting on the counter that had not been finished. She breathed a sigh of relief. Ginny never had tea unless Harry was home.

She made her way back into the living room. She wondered if maybe Harry and Ginny had gone out. It wasn't likely at this hour, but it was the best explanation she had. The only other explanation was that they were asleep, and she didn't want to disturb them if they were anyways. She decided that it was time to head back home, get some rest, and hope that when she woke up Ron was right beside her and the whole thing was just a big huge misunderstanding.

As she got some floo powder out of her pocket, Hermione heard a creak coming from behind her. Her ears perked up. She was not alone. She turned around and used her wand to fill up every corner of the room. She walked away from the fireplace. There was no one. It must be that she just might be hearing things. She was getting older; she was warned this might happen. She turned back to the fireplace, still looking at the living room behind her. She started to walk back. Then, she turned her head toward the fireplace. But she didn't see a fireplace. There was someone in front of her.

Hermione screamed and fell backwards out of shock. She quickly held up her wand and tried to make out who it was. Then, she started to laugh, embarrassed by what she had done, for it was none other than Ginny.

"Ginny, you idiot!" Hermione cried, "That wasn't funny. I nearly had a heart attack!"

Ginny just stood there, looking at Hermione. She didn't even twitch. She was just standing still like a ghost. Hermione put up her wand and looked at her closer. Ginny was very pale and looked sort of sick. Hermione wondered if maybe Ginny had a cold or something.

"Ginny?" Hermione said, standing up. "Ginny, is Harry here? I need to talk to him."

Ginny kept in her stance. Hermione wondered how Ginny got behind her without her seeing anything. It was very bizarre. Plus, why was she not moving? Why was she not responding? Why were all the lights turned off?

"Ginny, this isn't funny." Hermione said, slightly annoyed, "Did Harry come home? I need to ask him something about Ron."

Ginny stayed very still, but she finally spoke. "No one's here. Go home."

"But, I'm worried!" Hermione said, "Are you okay, Ginny? You look sort of off today."

"Go home," Ginny repeated herself, and Hermione noticed that her voice sounded a little deeper than usual. "Go home if you know what's good for you."

Hermione was starting to panic. Ginny was not acting like herself at all. Harry was nowhere to be seen. What was wrong? Hermione started to walk toward the fireplace, but Ginny held up her arm and didn't let Hermione get through.

"What the hell, Ginny?" Hermione said, "You told me to go home, now you won't let me?"

Hermione struggled to get past Ginny, but it was no use. Ginny was acting as a barricade around the fireplace. Hermione was scared out of her wits.

"What are you doing, Ginny? Please, I can help you! Just put down your arm." Hermione said, hoping that she could get to the bottom of this mystery. She looked into Ginny's eyes. She stared for about ten seconds before she noticed something.

Ginny wasn't blinking.

Hermione let out a small gasp as Ginny put down her arm. Hermione quickly ran past Ginny into the fireplace, but just as she was about to drop the floo powder and escape back home and alert the authorities that there was something wrong, Ginny grabbed her and turned her towards her. Hermione screamed when she saw Ginny holding up her wand to her face.

"Ginny, please!" Hermione said, "I know you're in there. Think about what you're doing! Stop it, please!"

But Ginny continued. She put her wand onto Hermione's temple and dug deep. Hermione felt the piercing pain in her head. Tears started to roll down her eyes. She just wanted to get out of there. She should never have come. She knew that there was something wrong, she should have stayed put. Oh, this was all her fault.

Ginny put her face right up against Hermione; so close that Hermione could feel Ginny's cold and dead breath against her. Hermione closed her eyes. She was done for. Ginny cracked a small smile, knowing that she had done what she was supposed to do. She only had to say one more word and her task was done. And say that word she did.

"Imperio."

* * *

**Hurray if you like cliffhangers! Boo if you don't :P. But please, don't you want to figure out what's up? Then please review and give suggestions so that we can upload a new chapter in two days. We love this story, but we don't know if you love it as much as we do because we aren't getting many reviews. Feel free to be constructive in your review, all we care is that people are reading. Until next time, Hey10224 and Xking23 signing out.**


	6. A Tale of Two Teachers

**To all those that were upset by last chapter's cliffhanger, here's a much nicer and light-hearted chapter for you. Don't worry, we haven't forgotten about Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione. Enjoy!**

* * *

At eight o'clock, right on cue, Dante's alarm clock went off, waking up everyone within a ten foot radius. Dante awoke with a smile on his face, having had a great sleep. He loved waking up to the sound of his alarm clock because it was so soothing and so calm. He rubbed his eyes, got his glasses from beside the bed and put them on, hoping to see the smiling faces of Xeno and Orion looking back at him.

They weren't smiling.

Both Xeno and Orion thought that the sound that Dante's alarm clock made was the most droning, horrible thing on planet earth. They were not going to get used to that sound. They both groaned as they awoke. Neither of them had had good sleeps last night. Xeno was more than a little embarrassed about crying in front of Orion and telling him his secret, so he got up with a huge frown upon his face. Orion had had another bad dream, only this time it was about his dad. His dad was killing a poor, defenceless man and Orion was forced to watch. He also got up with a huge frown on his face.

"Cheer up, guys!" Dante said, unsure as to why everyone was so down in the dumps, "As Marsha Petrie Sue says: Every day is a new beginning. Treat it that way. Stay away from what might have been, and look at what can be." But Orion and Xeno were not so sure that today was a new beginning.

They all quickly got ready for the day and the three of them headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast. Not a word was spoken. Dante could sense there was something wrong so he decided he should shut up for awhile. As they made their way down to the Ravenclaw table, Xeno saw Melissa and Juniper sitting and eating together at the opposite end of the table. Xeno looked at Orion, who slowly nodded, and then proceeded to walk over and sit next to Melissa and Juniper.

"Ugh, don't you wish he would sit with us at breakfast?" Dante asked, wondering what was so special about Melissa.

"Well, it would be nice," Orion said, thinking of his conversation with Xeno last night, "but I think he should be able to choose where he wants to sit for breakfast. What's the harm?"

"Okay..." Dante said, still confused as to why Xeno would want to sit with some stuck-up girl instead of his two roommates.

After breakfast, Latanya and Adrian, who were sitting alone as far away from Melissa and Juniper as possible, walked up to Dante and Orion. "We were kinda wondering if we could walk to Charms with you guys since we don't know where it is." Latanya said.

"That's okay, we know exactly where it is!" Orion said, smiling as the four of them started walking up the stairs.

As they went down the hall toward the Charms classroom, Latanya asked, "Why do you two even hang out with Xeno? I mean, I know he's your roommate and all, and maybe you don't know Melissa too well, but she's a stuck-up brat. And if Xeno's friends with her, it won't be long until he becomes one too. You should probably let him go before it becomes too ugly."

Dante and Orion looked at each other. Orion knew exactly what was going on with Xeno and his infatuation with Melissa, but even Dante thought it was kind of rude of Latanya to judge him like that. Neither of them decided to answer her and, when they got into Charms, Dante and Orion decided to sit as far away from everyone that they knew as possible. They didn't want to end up sitting near Melissa and get Latanya mad at them, and they didn't want to sit near Latanya because they didn't think what she said back there was very nice and they didn't want to hear another negative thing about Xeno.

"Latanya doesn't know what she's talking about." Dante said, irritated.

"You don't even know the half of it." Orion said as their professor came into the classroom.

Everyone instantly looked to the front of the class, where their teacher was now standing. Professor Woodward was a tall young man with brown hair, brown eyes and glasses. Orion was surprised at how cool Professor Woodward seemed to be. He hoped that maybe this professor would be the most chill and laid back, seeing as he was the youngest and therefore could relate the most to the students.

Orion was wrong.

"There will be no talking in this class." Professor Woodward addressed to the class. "If I ask you to do something, you bloody well better do it or else that's twenty points from whatever the hell house you're in. If I don't ask you to do something and you do it, that's thirty points. By the way, this is Charms class, so if you don't belong here you should probably leave now. In this class, you'll be learning a lot of theory. And by a lot of theory, I mean you aren't going to do much spells. This is your first year, guys. And girls, if you want me to be politically correct, but I really don't care if I am or not. If you want to complain about it, that's fine, there's a box right here made specifically for complaints. Just put down whatever you want to complain about on a piece of paper, put it in the box, and I'll completely ignore it and won't do anything about it. Got it?"

Orion couldn't help but wince every time Professor Woodward said "about". Why did Canadians have to pronounce it in such a manner that it sounded like "əˈbut" instead of "əˈbaʊt"?

"Now, today, we will be learning about fun stuff like how to succeed in this class and how to hand in homework on time," Professor Woodward told everyone, "But seeing as you all seem to be first years, you're going to forget this in the first fifteen minutes of me teaching it to you so what's the point? I'd say class dismissed, but I'd probably get fired if I did that so instead I'm moving on to the first lesson. Everybody, get out your textbooks. I'd probably get out a quill too, because you kind of need that if you want to write. But I'm not judging. Blood is an acceptable ink in this class, if you're into that sort of thing. Oh, and I hope you don't have a note-heavy class next period because you won't want to be writing again for a while after this period.

"Now, turn to page 1 in your textbook. For those of you who are a bit slow, that's the first one. Oh, crap, I've forgotten to take attendance already. Oh well, I assume all of you are here. I'm probably not going to try and learn your names anyways so it's not like I'm going to need the attendance for anything. Where was I again? Oh yeah, page 1."

And it was like that all period. Professor Woodward never shut up, and they took notes for the entire time. Well, not the entire time. A lanky looking brown haired Gryffindor girl with freckles tried to ask a question by raising her hand but Professor Woodward ignored her for twenty minutes until she finally said, "Professor Woodward!" and was subsequently yelled at for three minutes and punished for speaking out of line by losing her house thirty points. Orion was really happy when it was over.

"Unfortunately, class is over," Professor Woodward said when they finished, "I'm happy to say that only some of you are completely useless! Please do every question on pages 3-4 for tomorrow. They all must be written legibly or else I'm not even going to look at it. Each question should be answered with a paragraph. There are only forty-nine of them, so it shouldn't be too much. Also, remember that a paragraph has at least seven sentences in them. If even one of your paragraphs does not have at least seven sentences in them, your homework will be marked as incomplete. After only one incomplete, there is an automatic detention with me whenever I decided. After two incompletes, there will be detention with me every week until the end of the year. Got it? So you better get accustomed to doing your homework kiddos or else you're going to be seeing me more than you want to. See you tomorrow at 3. I can't wait. Sarcasm."

Everyone slowly got out of their seats. What a horrible class. What a horrible teacher. What a horrible way to start the day. Orion sighed. Was he ever going to have a really good day at Hogwarts?

"Orion! Dante! Over here!" Orion looked over and saw that Latanya was signalling them to come over. Latanya was with Adrian, Lafawnduh, a girl that he recognized as Jean Lam, another girl he didn't know and two boys. Orion and Dante walked over to Latanya, still mad at her for talking smack about Xeno, but curious as to what she was calling them over for.

"Guys," Lafawnduh said, "I'd like you to meet my new friends. There's Jean." The short little Asian girl that he had seen before waved. "There's Milly." The girl who had lost thirty points for her house smiled. "There's Colton." A tall and stout boy with short brown hair and grey eyes nodded. "And then there's... Jayden." A short blonde haired kid with blue eyes and a cute little smile put his hands up to his face and batted his eyes as if he was a princess. Then, he walked up and got real close to Adrian.

"Hey there, cutie. Where have you been all my life?" Jayden said, winking at her. Adrian rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

"Jayden's not very shy..." Lafawnduh said, laughing. "Actually, he's quite the opposite. But he's really sweet once he gets rid of his little... façade..."

"It's not a façade!" Jayden said, sounding offended. Then, he walked up to Latanya. "It's a way of life, baby."

Latanya burst out into laughter. "Oh, I love him already!"

As the ice began to break between Latanya and her friends and Lafawnduh and her friends, Orion and Dante glanced over to where Xeno, Melissa and Juniper had been sitting. They were gone now, presumably having their lunch. Orion really wanted to talk to Xeno about last night, but he knew that it wasn't the right time yet. He would have to wait until they were alone. And there wouldn't be a time as long as Melissa wasn't in a place that wasn't accessible to Xeno.

"OMG, doesn't Professor Woodward suck?" Latanya asked, "I mean, he has super good looks and all, but if he's so smart why can't he understand that maybe we don't want to slave away to homework all the time. We're just eleven for crying out loud!"

"I'm twelve." Colton said, "I was born on September 2nd."

"Okay, well you don't want to do all that homework, do you?" Latanya asked.

"Actually, I find it as some sort of challenge," Colton said, prompting a small sigh of disbelief from Latanya. "I live for thrills and challenges. That's why I'm a Gryffindor."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah and I'm a Gryffindor too, but you don't see me jumping up and down because of all this homework!" Lafawnduh said. "Anyways, let's all head down to lunch together! I know that we're probably going to have to eat at our respective tables, but after lunch we should all head up to Defence Against the Dark Arts together! We're all having it together."

And Latanya, Adrian, Lafawnduh, Colton, Milly, Jean and Jayden all started walking away with Latanya saying something along the lines of "OMG, have you had Potions or Transfiguration yet? Why must every teacher except for Professor Longbottom suck?"

Dante and Orion decided not to follow them, but instead look for Xeno. They went another way to the Great Hall, hoping that maybe the other group wouldn't notice that they were gone. When they got there, they didn't see Juniper, Xeno or Melissa anywhere in sight.

"Where could they be?" Orion asked, stumped.

Dante and Orion proceeded to eat lunch quickly and head up to DADA class, hoping that maybe Xeno was there.

When Orion opened the door to the class, he saw that Xeno was sitting on Melissa's desk and conversing with her and Juniper. Dante and Orion walked in and threw their books onto their respective desks behind Latayna and Adrian. "So, who is the teacher this time? I don't think he can be worse than well any of the other teachers." Orion laughed as he looked around for a sign of a teacher.

The class filled up quite quickly. Jayden was chatting up every girl around him. Most dismissed him because... well... they were only eleven. But every now and then a few laughed and started trying to get closer. Once they got closer he found a new target. Most students looked around, curious much like Orion as to where their teacher was. Then, there was a small pop near the back of the room and a voice. "Hello my students, eyes to the front." spoke what they presumed was their teacher.

Orion turned to face the front, listening to the man who was there. He seemed a bit like a brute, with his gruff and grizzled features, built strong, and sporting a goatee that was as black as his hair. He was wearing a long robe that seemed a bit tattered and torn, and was leaning against the desk with an acerbic smile. However, although Orion's first impression was that he was going to be another hardass, he looked closer at his new professor's face and saw his calm and relaxing blue eyes, like an ocean. When Orion saw these eyes, he knew that this teacher could not possibly be anything like Professor Woodward. They were just too laid back.

"I am Professor Galen Alvis. I will be your teacher. Now you all, for some reason, looked back when I threw... this." He told them as with a quick flick of his wand a small pebble came flying into his hand. "Now if all it takes is a small noise to distract you, to grab your attention, then in a battle you will lose. If a small noise will make you lose your awareness, then you have no hope in a loud battle, with explosions everywhere, spells flying everywhere, enemies everywhere. A noise should not distract you. It should not make you focus on the noise itself. It should make you more aware of everywhere. Now attendance, all seats are filled so you all must be here. If you are not here tell me now, or I will mark you as being present... okay? Everyone here? Good, now open up your books to page 32, and pull out your wand. The only way to learn is by doing, but you need to learn what to do first." He told them, once he was finished he waved his wand and a bunch of random drawings appeared on the board.

"Man, this guy sounds awesome." Orion muttered as he fiddled with his wand in one hand and read through his book in the other. It just kept talking about the ease of attacking a defenceless opponent. This didn't seem right with him, since if someone didn't have any way to defend themselves, then they couldn't attack you, so you should just walk away.

"Okay everyone have the reading done?" Professor Alvis asked, and was answered by a bunch of yeses. "Well then stand up, line up towards me, and one at a time do your best." He told them and he flicked his wand and sent the desks moving towards the left wall, stacking themselves. "Reverse alphabetical by last name." He told them and the students lined up accordingly. "Jayden you are up first, do your best."

"But, I thought we aren't allowed to attack a teacher." Jayden whined. He didn't want to look like a loser in front of anyone. This would be his first real bit of magic, and if he failed, well he'd rather wait until he knew he wouldn't be the only one to fail.

"If you wish to wait then you are free to do so, but I will not press charges if you attack me, since I am asking you, and I am not expecting you all to be perfect. A little pain now and then is good for the body, and the soul." He told them as Jayden shrugged and walked away and one of the quieter Ravenclaws went up and made his attempt. The spell went off, hit a window in the back of the room and shattered the glass. "Well, well, good try. It looked great! Your aim is a little off. But oh well, you are just learning, so... NEXT!" Then, the next few tried to disarm him, but Colton was the only one to succeed. He got 5 points for Gryffindor.

Orion was up. He prepared himself, he knew this spell, he heard it all through his life. It was the spell that made his dad famous; it was the spell that single-handedly defeated the Dark Lord. "Expelliarmus!" He shouted flicking his wrist. The jet of red light went flying out of his wand soaring towards Professor Alvis. His wand went flying back and threw the window To Wing broke. "I'm so sorry sir." Orion told him as he realized what he did.

"No need Mr. Potter. That was fantastic! 5 points to Ravenclaw, I will be back in a second." He laughed as he ran through the door and in a few seconds he was back with another wand. "Now let us continue shall we?" he asked, as he took his place back at the front of the room. The students left in line were eager to get their shot.

By the time the exercise was over only six students were able to successfully disarm their teacher: Colton, Milly Kroman and Adam Connor of Gryffindor, and William Fredericson, Orion and Melissa of Ravenclaw. "15 points to each house," Professor Alvis said. Then, he suddenly had a change of heart.

"Actually, I think that I'm going to make it that 45 points goes to each house. I'm surprised at how many students did so well that I'm going to give them 15 points each." Professor Alvin said, smiling. All the students were happy, especially the Gryffindors, who had had points stolen from them last period.

"Okay see you first thing tomorrow morning, we will do another run through. No practicing on each other yet, but read from 32-35 and remember, keep aware at all times." He told them as he flicked his wand and the blinds were drawn, and the window repaired itself.

The students filed out of the room, and Orion was the last to leave. "That was great!" He exclaimed as he caught up to Dante. Dante just nodded, a bit ashamed of his fizzle of a spell. "Come on, cheer up man, we get to try again tomorrow, and it was a bajillion times better then, well every class, except Herbology." Orion pointed out to Dante. Sadly, he knew he had Transfiguration next and Potions after that, so he couldn't fully appreciate the greatest class.

"We better get to Transfiguration... we don't want to upset Professor Lee." Orion muttered as he walked between Dante, Xeno, Melissa and Juniper, and Latanya and Adrian.

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Hopefully, you aren't getting lost in learning all the characters :P That's not our intention! As always, we encourage you to read and review. We know you're lurking! Come out and tell us who you are.**

**Hey10224 and Xking23**


	7. The Flight of the Fight

**Chapter 7, everybody! Enjoy.**

* * *

"I can't believe all the work we got! I mean we are only four days into school and I've probably written more then I have in the past ten years." moaned Orion as he finished up lunch on Thursday. He was starting to dislike school. It was interesting enough and he learned a ton, but half of his classes had teachers he couldn't stand, and his friends were having spats all the time. It was nothing like James told of, but maybe it would get better. He had flying next.

Dante sighed, "How are you supposed to succeed without working? As Donald Kendall once said, 'The only place where success come before work is the dictionary.'" He hated work as much as the next person. He hated history with Professor Binns, he was no good with spells in Defence Against the Dark Arts, Charms was painful. Transfiguration wasn't bad, but Professor Lee made it much worse than it should be. However, there was Herbology, which was fun and fairly easy, and then Astronomy where if the entire course is like how it was last night, would be simple. "Anyway Flying might be better. I hear the teacher is one of the better first year ones, plus he knows Quidditch really well apparently. I heard some fifth year say he played for Falmouth Falcons as a beater." Dante told Orion, Dante took up quite an interest in Quidditch. Orion has seen him reading "Quidditch through the Ages" for the past few days.

Orion looked over at Xeno and sighed. He never seemed to talk to them anymore. He and Latayna had a huge fight the other day, and since then, Adrian has talked more to Xeno then Latayna had. He then faced Latayna and grumbled. He hated his friends not talking, even more when he had to live with one of them. "We better get going; I want to see if I inherit any of my dad's skills," he told Dante as he left the Great Hall. They had Flying with Slytherin, so they might be able to talk to Justin. He seemed fine on the train and Orion hoped he was still a decent person. No matter how odd he was, it would be something refreshing.

The twenty four students stood just outside of the Quidditch pitch. Professor Fremont stood in front of them with a large pile of brooms. "Now students, you are welcomed to the wonderful world of Flying, where the ancient human dream of flying can become a reality. Welcome to my class. Welcome to the world of Quidditch." He told them as he handed out his brooms to each student. "Now put it on the ground... Why? You might ask? Because if the broom likes you enough then it shall fly into your hands as you shout 'UP!' Now go, shout, see if you have the power." Fremont told them as he paced in front of his students.

Orion followed the orders and put his broom on the ground. It was a Nimbus 3000, came out last year. It was painted silver with black accents and a blue head, probably one of the most boring brooms in the past ten years. He heard 22 voices shouting, him and Adrian were the only ones not shouting, she was just mumbling. No one had their broom jump up and after ten minutes of everyone failing their teacher spoke up.

"Okay, now seeing how that will never work, let's see if you can fly or not. And it's just wandless magic, which is very hard to do, and way beyond anything a first year should even think about ever learning. Pick it up and mount it." He told them with a chuckle. He showed them how to mount the broom, which wasn't very difficult. "Okay, now push off lightly, and just hover. Maybe move forward if you can, but don't push it." He told them as he himself pushed off lightly and hovered no more than a foot off the ground. The students tried. Most were able to get airborne.

"This is wicked!"

"I can't believe it!"

"I'm like a bird!"

Orion looked over. He had good enough balance to look around and turn and he could fly somewhat decently since he practiced enough with his family. He saw Dante balancing just off the ground. His balance was fine but he never moved. Then there was Adrian who was flying around like an ace, she looked like she's flown for years. And Justin and someone named Jason were up and looked comfortable. Justin tried to move forward and then went soaring off screaming, heading straight for the trees.

"Not on my watch!" Fremont yelled as he went speeding off towards the trees. He caught up to Justin right before he was turned into sap. Fremont grabbed Justin's collar and pulled him off his broom and flew back to Orion and the rest of the students.

"Thanks Sir," muttered Justin, "That was just in time too!" he laughed.

"Okay now for the rules of Quidditch, and flying in general." Professor Fremont droned as he explained in detail all the rules involved. Things like don't be seen by Muggles, and never to curse someone on a broom. He explained all the rules of Quidditch, every foul, every position, and then in 45 minutes he stopped to finally take a breath. "Okay well class is done in a few minutes, so head back to the school, you don't want to be late for your next class. Oh and Adrian can I talk to you for a minute?" He finished as he collected the rest of the brooms.

Orion had no idea what they talked about, but the way she flew on the broom was phenomenal. She flew like a professional. "So time for history, I hate that class, but at least I can get some sleep." Orion muttered as he entered the class and pulled out his hidden pillow book that James got him for his eleventh birthday.

* * *

By the end of the week, Orion had finished almost all of his assignments. He spent the most on a paper about the history of disarming opponents, magical and Muggle. Herbology was still his favourite class just because of the easy work load. But Charms, even with Professor Woodward yelling at them for everything, was interesting. Learning how to levitate objects was cool, and the after class practices with Dante and Xeno really helped. Orion guessed this is why he was in Ravenclaw. He enjoyed work, he didn't mind learning, and he wasn't nearly brave enough.

He was sitting with Latayna, Dante and Adrian during Saturday night supper; they were talking about their week, Xeno and his two girls were sitting closer than normal so he at least spoke sometimes, but every time was greeted by a grunt from Latayna. "Calm down, I mean is it really that big of a deal?" Orion exclaimed in the middle of dinner. He was then stared at by the rest of the school for a few moments before everyone decided he was not worth their time.

Orion walked up to the common room with Dante, who was slowly becoming his best friend mostly because of all the time they spent together, and got inside after answering a riddle about a mongoose. They walked inside and went up to their rooms because Dante was interested in seeing the Marauder's Map a second time.

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good," Dante said, because Orion had given him the map. Dante touched his wand to the map and it lit up. The two boys looked all around at the school. Most people were still in the Great Hall because they had finished supper early. Orion found it slightly annoying when he noticed how far Adrian and Latanya, and Xeno, Juniper and Melissa were sitting. One of the two groups must have moved.

"I don't know why we can't all just get along." Orion said, sighing. "Latanya holds too much of a grudge."

"Oh well!" Dante said, looking through the map trying to find something interesting for Orion to look at to get his mind off of the others. "Hey, look! A student is in the Headmaster's office! I wonder what he did." Dante pointed at the office, and Orion tried to see if he recognized the student's name. He almost fell off of his bed when he realized it was Chub Cantaloupe.

"I wonder what he did this time..." Orion said, grinning.

After a short while, looking at the map got boring. There were no good things to see. Everyone was scattering from the Great Hall and Dante yawned, indicating he was done. "Mischief managed." Orion said, touching his wand to the map. The ink disappeared and they were left alone and bored on Orion's bed.

"We should go out and explore tonight." Orion said, giving a suggestion to Dante. "I've always wanted to find out where the teachers live! I mean, they can't live in their offices, am I right?"

"No, I don't want to get into trouble," Dante said, reminding himself of the fifteen points he lost for Ravenclaw when he accidentally walked into the wrong bathroom.

"Oh," Orion said, disappointed, "Well, I kinda don't want to stay in here all night."

Before Dante had a chance to say anything, there was a tapping at the window. Both boys looked over and saw an owl in the window. Orion perked up when he realized it was his parents' owl. He ran over to the window and opened it.

"Wow, my first letter from home!" Orion said. Dante looked at the owl, puzzled. Dante could have sworn he had heard Professor Albert tell the students that owls from home would only come in during breakfast on weekdays, but maybe he had just misheard it. Orion didn't find anything suspicious.

Orion took out the letter from the owl's beak and quickly and anxiously opened it up. There, in front of him, he recognized his mother's handwriting. Orion almost wanted to cry he was so excited, but that wouldn't be cool so he didn't.

Then, Orion read it.

_Dear Orion,_

_Your father and I have been working hard for many years now. We have had children at home consecutively for twenty-four years now, and we've never got any alone time to ourselves. That being said, we've decided that it would be very good for us to go on a holiday for a few months around the world with your Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione. We've been planning this for a while now, but have not told you or your siblings because we didn't want you to worry about it. We're completely and utterly fine. We just wanted to let you know that we won't be in touch with you until Christmas break, when we get back and then we'll see you. I know this might be difficult, not speaking to your parents for a while, but we both know that you are going to do just fine. You will always have your brothers and sister and older cousins to talk to if you get scared or lonely. I know also that your cousin Louis is the Head Boy so feel free to talk to him too. I hope you understand why we did this, and hope that you will not be upset. We both love you very much and we wouldn't have done this if we knew that you weren't ready. We're proud of you, Orion. We'll see you for Christmas._

_Love, Mum_

Orion read this letter over and over again. He felt a bit of shock, a bit of sadness, a bit of isolation. Why didn't they just tell him that they were going to leave? Now he wasn't going to hear from his parents for more than three months. That was a little too long, he thought.

"What's wrong?" Dante asked as Orion kept reading the letter. But Orion ignored Dante and kept on reading.

Orion couldn't believe his parents wrote this to him. It was like they didn't even know him. Telling him he could talk to Louis if he felt lonely. Pssh, he'd rather talk to a carnivorous dragon than that asshole. Dante tapped on Orion's shoulder, but Orion again ignored him.

"Is everything all right?" Dante asked, but Orion, obviously on autopilot mode, said "Go away." Dante shrugged, wondering what was up with Orion and that letter. He then decided that he would go down to the common room and see if Latanya and Adrian were there.

After reading the letter over and over for about fifteen minutes, Orion finally decided to get up. He had thought a lot about what was written in the letter and had come to accept it. So what if he wasn't going to be able to talk to his parents for a little while? He thought of Xeno, who had never talked to his mom ever and how brave that was of him. Orion could handle this.

When Orion finally looked up, he realized he was all alone. He walked down to the common room, which he found oddly empty as well. He wondered where everyone was. He decided to go back up to his room and check on the Marauder's map.

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good."

Orion panned the grounds for sight of a familiar name. He looked in the library, but there was no one. He looked in the Great Hall, but they weren't there. He looked in the Entrance Hall, but again they weren't there. He got extremely puzzled, wondering where they could possibly be. Then, he saw one name that he recognized. It was Adrian Vella, and she was at the Quidditch pitch. She was there with Professor Fremont.

"I don't see the harm in going there," Orion said before wrapping up his mischief and putting it under his bed. He walked back downstairs to the common room. He walked over to the door, but not before spotting a couple on the couch making out. They stopped to look at him, and Orion quickly fled the common room, hoping that he didn't disturb them too much. He went down the stairs to the Entrance Hall and out of the school.

Orion took a good glimpse of the grounds. They were very beautiful. He could see the river to the right and the never-ending forest to the left. He looked at the forest. He wondered what mysteries he would find in there, if any. He walked down the steps and across to the Quidditch pitch, which was not too far away from the school. In the distance, he could see an old abandoned hut on school grounds which had belonged to one of his father's old friends Hagrid before he had died. Now, it was just a place for storage.

Orion went up to the front entrance gate of the Quidditch pitch. He tried to open it, but it was locked. He banged on the door, hoping someone would hear him, but he had no luck.

"You're not going to get in there, stupid kid."

Orion turned around and gasped.

Standing behind him was a group of six Slytherin students, all towering over him, looking menacing with cynical smiles on their faces. He gulped, hoping that they were just passing by and that they meant no harm. But they were all standing still as could be and they didn't seem like they were just passing by.

"Why do you want to get in there?" One of them asked, walking closer towards him, "It's forbidden to go in there if there isn't a game going on. Unless you're on a Quidditch team" He walked straight up to Orion and then knelt down and whispered in his year, "And I'm betting by the looks of it you aren't on one."

"So, you're a Ravenclaw, eh?" Another one of them asked. This guy seemed the least menacing with blondish hair and blue eyes. He wasn't that much taller than Orion. However, he was elbowed in the stomach by one of his friends, who said, "Don't try to ask him questions like that, you dumbass! We're not trying to make friends here."

Orion bit his lip. He really did not want to be in a situation like this. He just wanted to leave and go back to his bed and sleep and forget about going to the Quidditch pitch. Maybe he was just seeing things on the map, maybe Adrian wasn't actually there.

"Why're you here?" The one closest to him asked. He was the tallest of them all and looked like he could be a professional wrestler. He sort of scared Orion a little.

"Uh..." Orion said, trying to come up with an answer. He didn't have any though, because his answer probably would just give them more of an excuse to come closer, which Orion did not want.

"We don't like people coming around here." The wrestler guy said to him, "Especially first years like you. Do you know what we do to first years?"

Orion didn't want to find out, but the wrestler guy raised his arms and simulated a punching motion onto his palm. Then, he took out his wand. Orion closed his eyes.

"Stupid Ravenclaws. How I hate them." Orion heard one of them say. Then, Orion was grabbed and shoved up against the wall of the Quidditch pitch.

"Cruc-"

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?"

Orion opened his eyes. The big brute was pinning him against the wall with his wand right up in his face. However, he had a look of horror on his face. He let go of Orion and the six guys started running away. Orion stayed pinned up against the wall even after the boy had let him go, out of shock. He wondered what it was that made the boys that were going to beat him up so scared.

Then, he saw the Qudditch pitch's entrance gate spring open and out came Professor Fremont flying on his broom like a maniac. He flew at full speed, chasing the running boys. Orion saw quite a few people were starting to stare as Professor Fremont got closer and closer to the boys. Finally, he caught up to them, ran past them, and stopped right in front of them, making them all have to put on their breaks and stop. The short one actually fell down backwards in the mud.

"I'm disgusted at what you six were doing back there!" Professor Fremont said, "Six sixth years trying to gang up on a first year. I've never seen something more despicable in my life!" Orion watched as he saw Professor Albert run out of the front entrance to Hogwarts, trying to get to where Professor Fremont was Orion assumed.

"I don't know what your parents are going to think of this, but hopefully they're going to be seeing a lot of you soon enough because I hope your asses get expelled from this school forever for trying to use one of the unforgivable curses on another student!" Professor Fremont said, demounting from his broom. "But in the mean time, enjoy your little gift of having 100, no 150 points from Slytherin taken away from each of you. I don't care if that gets your house in the negatives right now. If I was a Slytherin student, which I was when I was a student here, I'd just be content knowing I wouldn't have to see you six again. I knew you were all bad eggs six years ago when I taught you flying, and I see that I was entirely right about you. Now, here comes Professor Albert to deal with you six. I have to go back and see if young mister Potter is all right."

Orion saw Professor Albert finally run up to the six boys. He decided he wouldn't bother listening to what he was saying because, frankly, he didn't care. He was still in too much disbelief to move or care about anything. Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He should have just stayed in his bedroom and waited until Dante or Xeno came up. He was seriously regretting coming here.

"Are you alright, Orion?" Professor Fremont said, walking up to Orion. Orion turned to face Professor Fremont, who looked like he had just been through a war, and nodded.

"Are you sure? You sure you don't want to go to the hospital wing? You didn't get punched or anything?" Orion shook his head. He hadn't actually gotten hurt at all. Professor Fremont stood up tall and crossed his arms together. Nothing was said for a short period of time.

Orion decided to speak. "That was cool what you did back there..." was what came out of his mouth. Professor Fremont chuckled a bit and said, "No, I was just doing my job. And what you just caused is probably the best thing that has happened to this school in a long time. We've been looking for an excuse to expel those six boys for six years for their crimes against other students. Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, even Slytherin students have been towering in fear of these six for a long time now, but until now we have not had any reason to expel them. Well, unless you count a teacher's severe dislike for them a reason to expel them. Outside the Quidditch pitch has been their meeting spot for a while now, but usually they were more careful and picked times when they knew that no one would be inside there. Unfortunately for them, but fortunately for the rest of the world, I was in there practicing with someone today. And I wouldn't have even noticed something was going on except that when I was flying around I saw you at the door, and then when I flew past the entrance again, I saw Apollo Kakios and knew that there was something going on. So, I told the person I was practicing with to stay put and flew over to investigate. I watched from afar intently, waiting to see if something was going to happen. And when I saw him pull out his wand, I knew trouble was going to start if I didn't act then. So, in my duty as teacher and protector of the student body, I started to fly to catch these six delinquents. That's all."

Orion was amazed at how Professor Fremont became cooler and cooler with every single movement he made. "Thanks for saving me." Orion said.

"Like I said, I'm just doing my job." Professor Fremont said, "Now if I were you, I'd run upstairs and get to your common room. Curfew is in fifteen minutes. Actually, how about you go up with young Adrian here? She doesn't want to go back alone."

Orion turned to face the entrance of the Quidditch pitch and saw Adrian there, leaning against the wall. Professor Fremont walked over to her saying, "Sorry that we didn't get to finish the lesson today. It was beyond my control, though. Blame it on the fault of circumstance. Now, next time, I'm bringing Stephan with me and you can practice with him. Does that sound good?" Adrian nodded. "Good, now I'll see you next Thursday." And Professor Fremont walked back into the Quidditch pitch, humming a song that Orion had never heard before.

Orion looked at Adrian. So the Maurader's map was right. Adrian was there. But why was she there? Orion was really curious. They started walking back inside the school; many people were looking at Orion because of what happened back there, but Orion tried not to notice. Instead, he looked at the beautiful sunset slowly creeping down the river's horizon. He knew that he hadn't done anything except try to get into the Quidditch pitch, which he now knows is not good idea. He did nothing special. He didn't deserve the looks he was getting.

As they walked up the stairs together, Orion couldn't take it any longer. He had to ask, even if he thought he wasn't going to be answered. "Why were you at the Quidditch pitch with Professor Fremont?"

Adrian stopped at the top of the stairs, the door to the common room right in front of them. Orion stopped too and turned to look at her. Adrian was smiling a smile he had never seen her use before. He hadn't noticed as they were walking upstairs at how much glee she seemed to be experiencing. This was mostly because he just had had no reason to look at her before. Then, she did something that Orion had not expected her to ever do in the entire time seven years. She spoke a full sentence.

"It's because I'm the Ravenclaw Quidditch team's newest seeker."

* * *

**I think that was more shocking than any cliffhanger. Who knew that Adrian even had it in her? Anyways, please read and review, we want to see more people reviewing. We like the few that do take the time out and review, but we would appreciate so many more. Hope you loved this chapter and will love the many more to come.**

**Hey10224 and Xking23**


	8. As Time Goes By

**Hello to all our faithful readers. This chapter is being uploaded on Christmas Day to coincide with our upload every two days rule, so we do not expect too much traffic, but please don't forget about it! It's a rather important one. Merry Christmas (to all who celebrate it), and enjoy!**

* * *

Within a day, news had spread about the entire debacle with the six Slytherin students and that other Potter kid. When Orion went down to eat the next day for breakfast, all eyes were on him. He quickly got seated at the Ravenclaw table. He didn't want to have this much attention on him for doing absolutely nothing. He wondered if this was how his father had felt everyday at school.

After breakfast, he couldn't even get out of the Great Hall without several people asking him questions about what had happened yesterday.

"Did they really try and use the Cruciatus curse on you?"

"Did Professor Fremont really knock them over with his broom?"

"Is it normal for an eleven year old to periodically wet the bed?"

However, Orion just shook off these questions and went upstairs with Dante. Dante wanted to work on homework in the library together, but Orion nixed the suggestion and said it would be better if they worked in a more private place, like their bedroom.

As they settled down to do some work, Dante took this opportunity to ask one of his own questions. "Did they actually want to kill you? Latanya told me that they were planning on killing you."

With that question, Orion closed his books and quickly and quietly ran out of his bedroom. If he couldn't be left alone by his best friend, he didn't know where he could be left alone.

He ran out the common room and was sure people were staring at him, but he didn't care. He walked down the stairs, which let off at an odd place with a bronze statue, took a left, took another left, took a right, took another right and then ran straight on until he realized that he had no idea where he was going. He stopped and looked around. He had never been in this area of Hogwarts before. He wondered where he was. It was a rather dark hallway and no one seemed to be anywhere in sight. This seemed like a pretty safe place to do homework.

Orion sat down against the wall and started to do his work. It was not too much, considering how much homework he had had this week. Just some History of Magic homework that he was falling behind in, that was all. Nothing big. He finished it within half an hour.

After he was done, he got up and started walking back in the direction he came from. The hallway was sort of spooky, but he didn't think much of it. Although it was weird that he had not encountered a single person the entire time he was writing his homework out, there was nothing particularly strange about this hallway.

But, when Orion got to the first fork in the road, he quickly regretted not bringing the Marauder's Map with him. Which way should he go? Left or right?

"Well, right's always the right way to go." Orion said to himself, content with that reasoning. He walked down to the right and put his hands in his cloak. He hoped he had chosen the right hallway.

Yet, after only a few minutes going down this path, Orion knew this wasn't right. The further he went down the hallway, the darker it got. Orion could scarcely see anything anymore. It was never this dark when he came in. He was about to turn around when he heard a voice coming from down the hallway. He couldn't make out who it was, or even whether it was male or female. But there was definitely a voice.

Orion, being the curious person he was, decided that he would go and investigate. He slowly walked closer into the darkness. He wondered why someone was here. He wondered where this hallway led to.

Then, he heard the voice again. This time, he could make out some of the words. It was a man, and he was saying something about the Ministry of Magic. Orion slowly crept along, listening intently for more.

Then, a woman spoke. This time it was about Azkaban, or something. Orion thought maybe he had heard a name being said, but he wasn't so sure. Orion looked up at the ceiling. He could definitely make out the outline of a spider web or twenty. Orion shuddered. He didn't mind spiders, but this place was slowly starting to creep him out.

There it was again! That name. He had heard that name before. Both of them had said it now. He wasn't sure why he had heard that name, or how, but he certainly had heard of it. He tiptoed a bit closer. His heart was racing a mile a minute. He hoped he wasn't in a restricted area of the school. Professor Albert had warned about those. Those caught in the restricted areas were guaranteed detention with him. Orion did not want to have detention with the headmaster, not so early in the school year.

Orion made one more move forward, but he instantly regretted it when he stepped onto something and broke it. The shattering of the glass echoed down the hall. Orion was heard. Orion was scared.

"HELLO?" The man yelled from down the hallway, "WHO'S THERE?"

Orion gulped. He stood there, afraid that he was going to get into trouble. Then, he heard footsteps. They were running after him. Orion gasped, turned around and booked it.

Orion was not the fastest runner, but he knew that he had to go fast if he wanted to get out of there. He ran down the hallway at full speed. He heard the footsteps getting closer and closer. "WE KNOW YOU'RE THERE!" The woman yelled. Orion closed his eyes and ran even faster. They were catching up to him, though. He didn't know if he had enough time.

Just as he was about to lose hope, he saw the light at the end of the hallway. The fork in the road! He picked up speed, almost hyperventilating he had so little oxygen, and when he got to it, he turned to his right. He had no idea where he was going; he just knew that he had to get out of there. Left. Right. Left. Right. Right. Right. Left. He was so lost.

Finally, he saw a familiar sight. The one way-mirror he had seen while he was exploring with Dante and Xeno on the second day they were at Hogwarts. He quickly pushed it open and ran over to the Ravenclaw door, which was right in front of him. He knocked hard. The beak of the eagle opened.

"I arrive once in every second, once in every minute and once in every year. What am I?"

Orion moaned, putting his hand on his forehead. He hadn't the slightest clue. But he didn't know how far the two adults were behind him so he had to make a guess, and fast.

"Uh... well, they all have the letter e..."

The eagle opened its beak again. "Naturally. That is the correct answer." And the door opened.

Orion sighed really loudly, and walked inside. As the door closed behind him, he knew he was safe. He walked up the stairs to his bedroom and quickly went and relaxed on his bed. The bedroom was empty, and he was quite happy. He just wanted to be alone until the nonsense about the six Slytherin students died down. He turned over and decided that it would be a great time for a refreshing nap.

Then it hit him. He remembered where he had heard that name before. He had heard it right here in this bedroom. It had come from Xeno's mouth. It was when Xeno was talking about his family, when he was talking about his mother.

The name Orion had heard the two adults talk about was Melia.

* * *

It wasn't long before mostly everyone had forgotten Orion's involvement in the six Slytherin students affairs. They were all temporarily suspended from Hogwarts, and were taken to London to be dealt with by the Ministry of Magic. Apparently, something this horrible has not happened at Hogwarts since 1997. Professor Albert left with them, as did the Deputy Headmaster Professor Longbottom and Professor Fremont, who was a witness. That meant that all Herbology classes were cancelled for the whole rest of the week, as was the Flying lesson. Orion really regretted doing the assignment on the first day now.

Unfortunately, this also meant that Professor Riche was in charge. After about five days, Slytherin had completely recovered from their losing of 900 points and were in the lead. Xeno complained one night before bed that Professor Riche was cheating by doing that, but Dante suggested that he was told to do that by Professor Albert because he wanted the House race to be closer. Orion didn't really care. Ravenclaw wasn't out of it, that was all that mattered.

Latanya formally announced that Adrian was going to be the newest Ravenclaw seeker to everyone at dinner Wednesday night. Everyone was amazed. She was going to be the first first year to play on a Quidditch team since 1991. Orion really didn't like to get reminded that it was his father who had done this last because he kept on hearing the question, "Why couldn't it have been you?" Orion was upset about this. Just because his father was a great wizard and special and all didn't mean he had to be, did it? James, Albus and Lily didn't do anything extremely great in their three years at Hogwarts, so why did Orion feel that he had to? He just didn't know.

In Orion's spare time, he looked on the Marauder's Map and tried to retrace his footsteps that day and figure out where the hell he went. He had went down the stairs and turned left, and then turned left again, but then he didn't know where he went from there. Plus, the stairs were always subject to change position, so he could have been off at a number of different places. It was no use, he didn't know where he had gone.

Then there was the question of Melia. Why were the two adults, who he assumed were professors, talking about her? He really was dying to figure it out, but he didn't have the time to research it with all the homework Professor Woodward and Professor Binns was giving him. He was just going to have to remember to look her up when he had time.

Orion never talked to Xeno anymore. Xeno was always with Melissa and Juniper and Orion was being forced into being with Adrian and Latanya by Dante. Latanya always complained about how horrible Melissa was and how she always played pranks on her and laughed when she cried. Orion thought this was a little mean considering Melissa had never really done anything to Latanya except try to look nice all the time. Sure, Melissa was a little vain, but Orion saw no reason to Latanya's apparent hatred for her. Oh well, he wasn't going to get into it. Some people just didn't like each other and Orion just had to accept that.

Before Orion even knew it, it was the third week of school. The six Slytherin students' preliminary hearing was over so Professor Longbottom and Professor Fremont returned. Professor Longbottom was put in charge, much to Professor Riche's dismay, and Herbology was to be back on. Orion was happy. It was one of his favourite subjects. Not going a week with it was pretty rough, especially when he had Professor Woodward to deal with. By the third week of school, every single person in his class, except Colton Tonics, had got detention with him every week until the end of the school year for doing two or more things that he didn't find acceptable. Orion had sneezed in class and spelled "interpretive" wrong on a paper he handed in. However, he didn't have them do anything in detention. In fact, everyone had decided that it was actually kind of fun and that Colton should come join them. However, Colton refused because he didn't want to have detention on his record. Jayden called him a spoil sport.

Over the course of the next few days, Orion couldn't help but feel as if the magic of Hogwarts itself was wearing off. The moving stairs were becoming more of a nuisance then a spectacular sight, the roof in the great hall was depressing with all the rain that was happening. Even carrying wands, seeing ghosts, and studying magic was wearing off.

"I can't believe that the time is going by so slowly. I feel like we have been here for a year and a half already." moaned Orion as he finished up his Charms work in the library with his friends. He looked slightly annoyed at his Transfiguration textbook. Professor Lee was way too strict when it came to him, but it was Lily's best subject, and James did fairly well in that class. What was so wrong with him?

"Why can't we do spells whenever we want, go on adventures... this is boring!" Orion pouted. This was nothing like he had heard from his siblings.

"Oh come on, it's not that bad!" Latanya said, "You just don't like Professor Woodward, who in my opinion is misunderstood."

"You know it's bad! I mean, with Adrian busy with her night time flights you are forced to hang out with us more. Plus, I heard a lot about you complaining about how Prof. Woodward is horrible, and the worst teacher of life, how he should die, how if he wasn't so incredibly good looking you might actually dislike him!" Dante pointed out with a shrug. He hated arguing, and hypocrites. "Like Thomas Carlyle once wrote, 'A man lives by believing something: not by debating and arguing about many things.'"

"Shut up Dante, no one asked you, or Thomas Carlyle." Latayna huffed as she picked up her books and walked out of the common room.

Orion sighed. It was like this all the time. Latanya and Dante never seemed to get along anymore. In fact, the only person Latanya seemed to get along with fine was Adrian. And Adrian never spoke! So Orion was always forced to talk to Latanya if he wanted to get any response back to what he was saying, which sucked, because Latanya was probably the person he liked the least at this school thus far. Oh well. Orion would have to get over that.

But just when Orion thought he was going to die from all the terrible classes, he always was dealt Herbology, Flying, or, his favourite, Defence Against the Dark Arts just in the knick of time. He was doing so well in Defence Against the Dark Arts, Orion thought that maybe he did get some of his father's genes in him after all! In fact, he was pretty sure that he may have had the best mark in the class, behind Colton that is. He really enjoyed Professor Alvis, who was definitely shaping up to be his favourite teacher. Professor Fremont was pretty kick-ass too, but Orion knew that he was only going to have him for this year, whereas Professor Alvis he was planning on having until seventh year.

One day, after DADA class, Professor Alvis went up to Orion, who was about to leave with Dante and Adrian, and asked, "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

As everyone else left the class, Orion walked over to Professor Alvis. Professor Alvis walked over past his desk and into his back room. "Come in!" He said.

Orion walked into Professor Alvis's back room and gasped. It was filled with posters and books and moving pictures and everything cool. It was really messy, and the desk was filled with papers, presumably tests. There was a pink couch, which didn't really match anything else in the room, right in front of the desk and Professor Alvis gestured for Orion to sit on it. Orion did as he was told as Professor Alvis sat down at his desk.

"You're a remarkably talented young wizard, Orion Potter." Professor Alvis said, flicking his wand. Two cups of tea came floating from another room and landed in front of them. "Your father, was too an incredible wizard. I was four during the war; I remember hearing about it happening. Harry Potter, a legend of the wizarding world from the time he was born. Then having four children, such a burden to live up to isn't it?" He asked. He seemed so relaxed, lost in his own thoughts. "Orion, your father fought Tom Riddle, who was arguably the greatest wizard for around 30 years, then 'poof'. He ran off, beaten by a baby. Seventeen years later, he was defeated a final time by that same baby, who was now just a boy, not even a man yet. I'm sure you have heard this all many times before.

"The war completely changed everything," Professor Alvis said, taking a sip of his tea. Orion followed suit. "When it was over, the whole wizarding world was in jubilation. My family partied for weeks afterwards, and they weren't even huge Potter supporters. Nobody knew the truth during that time, and when Voldemort died... it was just so good for it all to be over." Orion looked down. He didn't like this talk of the murder his father had committed. "Anyways, I have called you in here to tell you that you have a natural knack for this Defence Against the Dark Arts thing. I don't know if it's genetic or something, but it's quite extraordinary. You really know how to work your way with a wand."

Professor Alvis paused once again to sip his tea. "Yet, I have heard that in many other classes you are not having the same success as you are having in this class. Why is that?" Orion looked up again at Professor Alvis, who was so calm and chill. Orion spoke. "I don't really know..."

Professor Alvis smiled. "I think that at Hogwarts, we should cater to the student's strengths. We are not all the same people, why must we all be taught the same? I'm trying to make sure everyone is successful to the best of their ability in this class. I don't know if what I'm doing is right or not, but it's what I am doing, and as long as I see results, I will not change my methods. Now, I do know that some of the other teachers do not have the same policies as me. The old Charms teacher, Professor Blandus, however, had the exact same policy as me. He was well-liked by all and was arguably the most favourite teacher at this school.

"Unfortunately, last year he... retired, and Professor Woodward was put in as his replacement. Edric Woodward..." Professor Alvis paused to gather his thoughts. "He's a very... educated man. At the age of eleven, he made the controversial decision to come over here to Britain to do his learning here. In Canada, they don't have an old and prestigious wizarding school like we do. He really just wanted to learn here because of someone else he had heard who had come here."

"Was it my father?" Orion asked. He had heard of people that had tried to switch into Hogwarts from his father because of this reason, but had not known if anyone was successful in doing so.

"Yes, actually, it was." Professor Alvis said, "Professor Woodward had some slight obsession with your father. And when he had heard that three of his children were going to be at Hogwarts at the same time as him, he just knew that he had to come here at all costs. Yes, Edric was in the same year, I believe, as your sister Lily."

Orion gulped and scratched his back. He found it odd that someone his sister's age was already here teaching at Hogwarts. Man, his siblings were so much older than him.

"Anyways, I hear was an exceptionally bright student," Professor Alvis continued, finishing off his tea, "He went far above and beyond the call of duty. I'm pretty sure that he got all Os on his OWLs and took every class possible. He actually ended up finishing his schooling a year early because he took many courses throughout the year, even though I don't know how he could have done that. But as soon as he finished, he applied to be the successor of Professor Blandus. Which I find quite odd, because Charms wasn't even his best subject at this school."

"If you don't mind me asking, what was?" Orion asked, curious.

"It was actually Transfiguration." Professor Alvis said, stroking his goatee. "But he knew that if he had applied to be the successor to Professor Blandus, he would end up getting a job at Hogwarts much quicker than if he had applied to be the successor of Professor Lee, who has quite a bit more years in her. But the point is, Professor Woodward really wanted to stay here for some reason, and he was granted his wish.

"Why did I tell you all that, you might ask," Professor Alvis said, leaning against his desk, "Well... Professor Woodward, like I said, was very educated. But, he has no sense of social interaction. The only reason, or at least I think, he wanted to be a teacher was because he wanted to stay at Hogwarts. He is not the biggest fan of children. Also, he learned his lessons in a very... peculiar way..." Professor Alvis took the time to pause to scratch his arm.

"What way?" Orion asked, listening to Professor Alvis's every word.

"Well... he didn't learn by magic..." Professor Alvis said, "He learned by writing everything out. And by everything, I mean everything. Professor Longbottom sometimes shows me Edric's term papers and, let me tell you, if I had taught him, which I never did because I came to this school a year after he left... Let's just say I would have had to stay up a few hours later than I normally would when I mark. He had this odd way of using fifteen hundred words when he only needed to use one.

"The worst part of this, is that he just assumes, mostly because he doesn't really know any better, that everyone learns by writing out paragraphs and paragraphs and paragraphs of parchment. He doesn't know any better. And he has no idea why everyone is doing so poorly in his class either. Poor ignorant bastard." Professor Alvis immediately shut his mouth. "Oops. Don't tell anybody I said that! Heh."

Professor Alvis cleared his throat, then continued on. "Anyways, Edric has given up on social situations, and, well, you can see how that affects him as a teacher. He's not catering at all towards your needs, and that's why you aren't doing so great in his classes."

"But, what about Potions?" Orion asked, "Transfiguration? History of Magic?"

"You're doing fine in Potions." Professor Alvis said, smiling. "Professor Riche is sort of a hard-ass, but he's really just a softy who kind of... well no, really favours Slytherins. Professor Lee... she has something against you, mostly because Albus accidentally missed while casting a spell once during his NEWT training and... well Professor Lee was coughing up hairballs for a month. By the way, this never happened." Professor Alvis laughed, winking. "Don't do anything stupid in her class Orion, or you will be punished, she is not one to be trifled with. Tread lightly.

"As for History of Magic..." Professor Alvis said, continuing to smile, "Well, I think it's entirely natural for everyone to let one class fall to the wayside, if you know what I mean. Anyways, enough of me rambling, I've said way too much. I'm here to tell you to keep your head up, Orion, because you're a remarkable student and you are going to do great things here, I just know. You are certainly your parents' son, no matter which house you're in. All you need to do is give everybody what they want. Except you don't have to do that here, because I give you what you want." Professor Alvis elbowed Orion jokingly.

"Alright, you are free to go to lunch." He told him as he slowly stood up opened the door, "I have to prepare for my next class. Slytherin and Hufflepuff. Sixth years. Thanks to those six boys who are in London right now, I'm going to be able to show them some good stuff without risking an explosion within the school. So long, Orion Potter. I'll see you again on Saturday."

And on that note, Orion left Professor Alvis's back room. Orion was thinking hard and long about what Professor Alvis had said. It seemed like so little, but Orion couldn't help but think that maybe this was some sort of warning. It was a bit odd, nonetheless. But, Orion really liked Professor Alvis, so he wasn't upset that he had got to spend some extra time with him. Plus, he wasn't really in the mood to talk to Latanya anyways. All she was talking about lately was how funny Jayden was, or how stupid Melissa was, or how cute Professor Woodward was, when he wasn't being a total dick. It was kind of annoying.

Orion sighed, and decided that instead of going down to the Great Hall for lunch, he would go up to the common room and check out his Marauder's Map. He had had no time to use it lately, but the day before, as he was walking to Potions with Dante, the stairs led off to a landing that it almost never went to before and he recognized the bronze statue that he had saw as he was running to be alone the day he had heard the two adults talking about Melia. So, Orion went out the door of the Defence Against the Dark Arts room and took a rarely travelled left towards the common room.

As he turned out, he blindly walked into someone that was right in front of him. Orion fell backwards, his wand knocking out of his hand and rolling over to the other side of the hallway. Orion crawled over to the opposite side of the hallway, picked up his wand and turned to see who he had run into.

"Sorry..." Orion said before gasping upon seeing who it was.

He had just run into Professor Woodward!

"Oh, I'm so sorry, sir." Orion said. Professor Woodward sneered. "Watch where you're going, Potter. That's what eyes are for!" Professor Woodward then continued to walk down the hall, his cloak flying behind him, and with a turn down a hallway, he was gone.

Orion gulped. He was surprised that that incident hadn't made Professor Woodward take five points away from Ravenclaw or something. Maybe Professor Woodward was turning soft. Anyways, Orion decided to continue on his journey back up to the Ravenclaw common room, his head still spinning a little from falling backwards.

As he made it into his bedroom, having passed through by answering the riddle correctly (something about a French cat), Orion slowly pulled out the map and said the magic words to get the ink to appear. He looked out the window and saw that the sun was still high in the sky and that he had plenty of time to look over the map. As he tried again to retrace his footsteps like he had done many times before with this map, he suddenly had a revelation. Orion gasped.

The male voice. In the hallway.

Professor Woodward!

* * *

**Please review so we can get some suggestions! It's getting more difficult as we're speeding up the process (did you honestly want us to talk about every day they went to Hogwarts in two chapters? :P), so we need all the reviews we can get it. We want to see a new reviewer every time we upload a chapter if possible, but we're going to stick to our chapter per two days thing regardless until school (bleh) starts up again and we'll see what happens from there. Thank you for reading!**

**Hey10224 and xking23**


	9. Inconsequentially Skipping

**Remember when we said we'd be consistent with updating after Christmas? ...We lied.**

* * *

Orion stumbled back to the common room in a daze. His head was spinning with all his thoughts. _Was Prof. Woodward evil? Was he supposed to save the school? Did he have to kill anyone? Why did his parents run when he needed them most? _He followed some sixth year in through the door, not even hearing the riddle, which was a pleasant surprise because right now he would not have been able to think enough to answer it. He just pulled himself up to his bed and thumped down, burying his head under his pillow.

He slowly fell asleep; too many early mornings were finally taking their toll on him. He missed lunch and arrived late to History of Magic, earning himself a minor penalty of 2 points from Ravenclaw. The rest of the day, and even the rest of the week went by fairly normally, even more so then his weeks prior as he subconsciously repressed all of his upsetting thoughts and turned on autopilot.

Soon enough it was the Tuesday of the following week and he awoke like normal to the robotic buzzing of Dante's clock. "Ugh, Charms." Orion muttered as he rolled over and got out of bed. A murmur of agreement came from Xeno's body.

Soon enough they finished breakfast and went to Charms without getting lost. The castle was becoming less of a maze and a lot more predictable. They even knew that on Tuesdays there was a staircase that leads from just outside the Great Hall to the Charms room in between seven in the morning till three in the afternoon.

As Orion and his friends arrived in front of the Charms room, they noticed a large sign posted on the door and a muttering of excitement from the students that were already there. Dante ran up to the door, pushing past fellow students who were standing in the way. "WooHoo" He shouted as he actually came skipping back to the group. "Apparently Professor Woodward is unable to teach today and no one could fill in last minute!" he exclaimed as he quickly skipped back down the stairs.

Orion watched everyone else happily make their way back down the stairs; he smirked to himself happy that probably one of the most tedious classes ever to exist was cancelled. Then something dawned on him, something that really hasn't crossed his mind all week; Professor Woodward and his secret conversations with someone. Maybe those turned into more than just conversation. Maybe Professor Woodward had to flee the school. Maybe there was something new happening. Orion wondered to himself as he slowly made his way over to the common room. He needed to tell somebody, but it was a matter of who could he trust and who would believe him.

He walked up to the common room door. The eagle sprang to life and spoke "If a man carried my burden he would break his back. I am not big but I leave silver in my tracks. What am I?" Orion stood there for a minute and pondered. Finally after being provoked by the eagle head he answered "A snail." The door swung open and he walked inside.

Looking around he saw only Dante and Adrian sitting down. One of the positives about the Ravenclaw house is that when the students have free time, most will go to the library, leaving the many chairs and couches free for those that stay.

"Ay! Orion, what took you so long?" Dante asked as he flipped through his Charms book. He sighed as he noticed Adrian actually doing the work, and writing rather quickly, going through parchment like it was... well for lack of a better analogy... paper.

"Sorry, I was just thinking." Orion muttered as he flopped down on the couch beside Dante. His books tossed on the floor, too lazy to do his work or even feign doing it. He sat with his thoughts for a few seconds, needing to tell someone about Professor Woodward. Then it dawned on him. These two were probably the best to tell. Dante would never betray Orion, and Adrian didn't talk enough to warrant being scared of her blabbing to the wrong people.

"Um, okay so I need to tell you guys something. Something that no one else can know, or at least not yet. Not Latayna, not Xeno, not even a teacher." Orion started. After both Dante and Adrian nodded in agreement, he took a breath and continued.

"Okay so sometime last month, I was walking around in the halls trying to find a quiet place to do work, and well I found some room that was dark, but very quiet. I was there for maybe half an hour and when I got up to leave, well... I got lost of course, took some turns and at one point I heard something. I heard two people talking with very hushed voices and sounding very secretive. A man and a woman, and well they were talking about Azkaban, and the Ministry. I ended up being chased away but soon after, I bumped into Professor Woodward around the same spot, and his voice... it was the man's! And I've noticed he's been acting strange lately, and now today he's gone. It can't be a coincidence." Orion finished, slightly out of breath after talking for so long, so caught up in the story.

"Dude, so let me get this straight. You think that arguably one of the least social people ever to exist would talk, in private, with a girl." Dante asked him, knowing it wasn't quite what Orion meant, but it might go to show how crazy the story was. "I mean no offence or anything but as Oscar Wilde said 'The truth is rarely pure and never simple'. You can't just expect a few random acts to be one giant conspiracy can you?"

Orion sighed because he knew the odds were against it, but it was a gut feeling. He knew something was up with Woodward. He looked toward Adrian, knowing she most likely won't say anything, but just a simple nod or a gaze would be all he'd need. "Orion, Dante, I think it's something to pay attention to." Adrian whispered as she slowly picked up her quill and began to furiously scrawl on her parchment.

Both Orion and Dante gave a small nod to Adrian and to each other. They had an understanding. Keep track of Professor Woodward and make sure that nothing was going to be an issue. They decided to go down for lunch as soon as Adrian was done her work. And rather shortly after eating and meeting up with Latayna and Xeno, who was giving more space to Melissa in hopes of making her realize she liked spending time with him, they went to their Defence Against the Dark Arts class.

As they made their way to the Defence Against the Dark Arts class, suddenly Orion remembered the other thing that made the Professor Woodward experience he had last week so interesting. They had mentioned the name "Melia". He looked at Xeno as he was desperately making his way over to Melissa, probably already bored by the giving space to her method. Now, Orion wasn't stupid enough to think that Xeno's mother was the only person on planet Earth named Melia, but it wasn't exactly a common name either. He looked over at Dante and Adrian who were talking with Latanya. Should he tell those two about Melia as well? Even if Xeno told him not to.

_Well_, Orion thought, _I am already drifting apart from Xeno. Why risk making it even worse by going against what he said?_ Orion decided it wouldn't be the best idea to tell Dante and Adrian. Besides, they already knew about the Professor Woodward thing anyways. Anymore conspiracies and they'd think he was crazy.

They made it into the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom just in time. Professor Alvis was already standing at the front of the classroom. "Now class," He said, "I want all of you to hand in your homework from last night on wandless magic. I will not be marking this assignment, but I do want to read about what all of your thoughts on the subject are. Single file please."

Orion got in line right behind Dante and right in front of Adrian. He smiled. He trusted these two with his secret about Professor Woodward very much. They wouldn't tell anybody at all. Would they?

Dante made his way up to hand in his homework. He put his paper on his desk but didn't leave right away. Instead, he asked Professor Alvis a question. "Sir," he cried out, getting Professor Alvis's attention, "What's the real reason Professor Woodward cancelled class today?"

When he had first registered the question Dante had asked, Orion had felt betrayed. He had specifically told Dante that they weren't to tell any teachers about his conspiracy! But after he had calmed down a bit, he realized that it really was quite an innocent question. It wasn't like Dante was saying that he was suspicious. He was just curious, or at least Professor Alvis would see it that way.

Professor Alvis put his finger to his mouth and leaned in to Dante. He quietly whispered into Dante's ear so that not even Orion, who was less than a foot away, could hear him. Dante then nodded and went back over to his seat. Orion watched intently.

After Orion had put his homework on Professor Alvis's desk, he immediately went over to Dante. "What did he say?" he asked impatiently.

"Oh, Professor Alvis wasn't supposed to tell anybody," Dante said, smiling, "So he didn't tell me."

Orion knew Dante was lying through his teeth so he asked him again. But Dante refused to tell him. Bugged out of his mind, Orion barely paid attention to Professor Alvis all Defence Against the Dark Arts class. It was a really interesting lesson about wand usage, Orion knew that, but he was much more interested in the fate of Professor Woodward.

Orion was slowly starting to feel as if Hogwarts was the adventure his brothers and sister were telling him about, though probably not in the way that they had intended it for him to have been. First, the entire debacle with the sixth year Slytherin kids, which he was slowly starting to realize was a good thing instead of the threat to his identity that he originally had thought it was. And then there was Professor Woodward and why he had to come back to Hogwarts so quickly. Plus, what was up with the conversation he had with the mysterious woman? Hogwarts really was an interesting place, but he had to find the adventure himself. And that's exactly what he wanted to do with Professor Woodward.

After class, Orion immediately went back up to Dante and asked him the same question. Only this time, Dante looked around and then told Orion that he would tell them on the way to Potions. Orion smiled.

The way that most students made their way to Potions class was that they took a left out of the DADA classroom and went down the immediate flights of stairs that made their way to Potions. There was another way, of course, but it was much longer. It involved taking a right and then taking another flight of stairs which in turn took you to a landing that lead you to another flight of stairs that lead to the other side of the dungeons. If students were to take that way, they would barely make it to Potions class on time. But, as all the students took a left in front of them, Dante motioned Orion to take a right with him so that he could talk to him in privacy. Orion followed him and they were on their way.

"I have no idea why Professor Alvis told me this." Dante said, barely containing his excitement, "Maybe he thinks of me as one of his star students and thought that I could keep a secret!"

"Well, obviously you can't." Orion said, "Now tell me!"

"Wow. Someone's impatient." Dante said as they made their way down the first flight of stairs. "And yeah, you're right. I can't keep a secret... except for yours of course!" Dante said as Orion gave him the evillest glare possible.

"Then what is it? I have a few ideas," Orion said, starting to list off conspiracy theories, "Is it that he is actually fleeing from the school because of his illegal conversations with-"

"ILLEGAL CONVERSATIONS?" Dante exclaimed, laughing, "What the heck are illegal conversations? Orion, you really are crazy sometimes. No, actually, Professor Woodward just had a mild panic attack. Professor Alvis said that he gets like that sometimes, usually when too many people are talking to him at once. And it was during a staff meeting and he wasn't answering his questions and-"

But Orion had stopped listening after Dante had said mild panic attack. Panic attack. He had a sudden recollection of the panic attacks his mother had had every September 1st when James, Albus or Lily got on that train to Hogwarts. He never liked seeing his mother like that. Thankfully, she explained to him that these panic attacks were just mild and that it was because she knew that where they were going was completely safe and knew that the Hogwarts Express never failed. She then went on to explain to him that, in the future, if he were to ever go somewhere that he would tell his mother first and that she would do the same to him if she were ever to go somewhere. She explained this to him every September 2nd.

About a month ago, his mother had written him a letter. He closed his eyes, trying to remember what it had said. One particular passage that had said this:

_W__e've decided that it would be very good for us to go on a holiday for a few months around the world with your Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione. We've been planning this for a while now, but have not told you or your siblings because we didn't want you to worry about it._

They had been planning the trip for a while now, but did not tell him or his siblings. Because _she did not want him to worry about it_. He stopped in his tracks.

Dante, who was still rambling on about staff meetings, noticed that he had lost his talking partner and spun around. "What is it?" He asked Orion.

But Orion did not answer. Suddenly, he had no desire to go to Potions today. He didn't care if that meant detention or loss of points from Ravenclaw. No, this was much more important. He did a complete 180 turn and ran back up the stairs. He didn't look back, even when Dante yelled, "Orion! What are you doing? You have to go to Potions!"

No, he was not going to Potions. Actually, he was making his way as fast as he could to the Owl Room. He needed to send an owl to his brother as soon as possible. It was very important.

As he made his way, almost running into fellow students at the school making their way to various classes, he wondered why the letter had never struck him as odd before. Well, it was odd that they went on a trip without telling him, but why had he never thought of how hypocritical his mother seemed in the letter. She had specifically told him that she would never do what she had told him in the letter. He wondered why his siblings had not communicated to him about this oddity.

Making his way upstairs, Orion dodged away from the view of Professor Albert who was on the stairs with him as the chime told the students that they were tardy. He didn't care though. He had more important business. He knew he was crazy for doing this, but if Orion didn't do it now, he would forget about it like he had forgotten about it for a month before.

Finally, he made his way into the empty owl room. He picked what seemed like a perfectly acceptable owl and got out some parchment. Scribbling as fast as he could, he wrote out what was on his mind.

_James. How are you? I'm fine. Do you know where mom and dad are? Don't you think it's weird that they went on holiday without telling us where they were going? Especially considering mom would freak if we had ever done this to her. Frankly, I'm concerned. When you get this, please try to make me understand. She didn't want me to be, but I'm worried about it. Please write back ASAP. Orion._

Hastily, he attached the letter to the owl's leg and lightly pushed him over the edge of the school. He watched as the owl started to fly away. He bowed his head over the edge of the wall in front of him. He couldn't believe what he had just done. Skipped a class to do something he easily could have done during dinner. Why was he all suspicious and full of conspiracy today? Perhaps it was because he had had a good sleep last night for the first time in ages and actually felt awake. Maybe it was because he was repressing his feelings too long and he resorted to drastic measures. Whatever it was, he was all worried and he didn't like it.

As he made his way out of the Owl Room, he hoped to himself that James would reply to him as soon as possible like he said he wanted in the letter. He _had_ skipped class to write the letter. It was only fair that James would reply back soon. Wasn't it?

* * *

After spending the rest of his "spare" in the Owl Room watching the owls come in and out, he made his way down. Of course, the moment his friends saw him, they immediately went to crowd around him to question him.

"What did you do?"

"Why did you skip?"

"Where were you?"

Orion bit his lip, trying to figure out what to say. Then, he decided on a "I wasn't feeling to good... I'm better now though!" and, after a collective "Ahhh...", they never spoke another word to him until dinner.

During dinner, Orion was pretty much ignored. Latanya was talking to Adrian about Professor Woodward and how he shouldn't be able to cancel first year classes and that she would be mad at him if she didn't think he was dreamy. Xeno was telling Melissa about how good he was with his wand. It was the usual. The only attention he had on him at all was from Dante, who didn't quite buy the sick excuse. During the main course, Orion leaned into Dante and said, "I'll explain later." Dante nodded and continued to eat.

At the end of the day, Orion made his way to the dormitory with Dante right behind him. Xeno was off hanging around with Melissa and Juniper. Orion knew Dante wanted to know everything so he opened up to him as quickly as possible.

"I honestly believe you're being a little too suspicious," Dante said. Orion sighed. He knew that Dante would say that.

"Look, I'm just trying to figure things out, okay?" Orion said.

"Okay, but you didn't have to skip Potions for it. We lost ten points because of your unexplained absence, Orion!" Dante said, but Orion just shrugged him off.

Over the course of the next few days, Orion woke up before Dante's alarm clock went off. He was always the first to be ready to go to breakfast. He was prompt because he wanted to see if James had responded to his letter yet. However, breakfast after breakfast, there was no response. One day became two days became three days became four days. This went on and on and on until it had become two weeks. And during the weekend of the second week, as Orion and Dante worked on a Defence Against the Dark Arts project in the library, Orion finally restarted to tell of his woes.

"Is it wrong to be worried when your brother has had ample time to reply back to you about a subject you find extremely important, yet hasn't bothered to?" Orion asked. Dante, looking up from the research book he was reading, sighed.

"Maybe he hasn't responded because he's busy?" Dante said. But Orion was not too sure about that.

"Dante, in the last three weeks, how many letters have you sent to and from your parents?" Orion asked.

Dante looked at Orion with a frown. "Orion, this is not about me..." Dante said, knowing perfectly well he got a letter from his mother every Friday and perhaps maybe even more throughout the week.

"Come on!" Orion said, "I've been so patient. Two weeks isn't exactly a short amount of time."

"I know..." Dante said, looking down at the research book in front of him. He desperately wanted a subject change. He knew that Orion was worried, but he really was not good at consoling people or things like that.

"You know," Dante said. "Alexandre Dumas Pere once said 'All human wisdom is summed up in two words – wait and hope.'"

"So?" Orion asked, wondering where in the world Dante got all of these quotes.

"Uh...just try to understand it." Dante said, but he really had nothing to add to that. Should have picked a quote by William Shakespeare, he thought.

"Anyways, I'm glad that Professor Woodward hasn't done anything out of the ordinary recently," Orion said, "Maybe the talking thing I told you about really was just all in my head."

"See, what did I tell you!" Dante exclaimed. But Orion was still not convinced that he was wrong. Adrian had actually come up to him the other day during detention with Professor Woodward and told him that there was something strange about his behaviour but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Orion hadn't noticed it, but Adrian was not a liar and he believed what she had said. Professor Woodward was odd though, no matter how you looked at it.

"Well, if James doesn't reply back in ten days, I'm going to have to rewrite to him," Orion said, shuddering at the thought of having to wait another ten days.

"Halloween's in ten days." Dante said. Orion had completely forgotten about Halloween.

"That's right!" Orion said, "If he hasn't responded by Halloween, then I'll officially start to get worried."

As Dante went back to doing work, Orion started to stare off into space. Maybe he should have sent the letter to Lily. Or perhaps even Albus... Why hadn't James written back yet? James. His beloved brother. The one that he trusted the most. If only he knew what he was doing to me, Orion thought to himself, he would never be doing this...

No, Orion thought, he _would_ never be doing this. Just like his mother _would_ never go on a trip without telling him. For sure, there was something fishy going on outside of Hogwarts. That was for sure. But nobody else seemed to be noticing. Orion really was not the type to worry about things, but this whole situation was frankly starting to make him a little nervous.

He closed his research books, unable to do work while he was thinking about his problems. The first month of Hogwarts had gone by so slowly, but October was going by so quickly. Before he knew it, he would be back at home for Christmas. At least he had Christmas. He had something to look forward to involving spending time with his family. That was comforting. At least he had Christmas... Nothing would change Christmas.

* * *

**Please Read and Review. We prithee! This may not be a huge update but, come on, we have to fast forward for time. We don't want this to end up being longer than the Order of the Phoenix!**

**-Hey10224 and Xking23**


End file.
